Department for Transport

Motorcycles: Exhaust Emissions

Chris Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will meet with representatives of the motorcycling community to discuss exemptions to emissions charges and the potential contribution motorcycles can make to reducing net emissions.

Jesse Norman: Emissions charges for motorcycles are proposed in London only, as part of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). Decisions about the level of charges and which categories of vehicles are charged, are a matter for the Mayor of London. Representatives of the motorcycling community should contact the Mayor to discuss exemptions to the charges.

Roads: Accidents

Chris Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether there has been a modal shift in the number of injury-causing accidents in locations where turbo-roundabouts have been introduced; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: The Department does not hold a record of where and when turbo-roundabouts are introduced, and the information held on junctions in its road accidents data does not provide this level of detail.

Electric Vehicles: Environment Protection

Chris Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made a whole life assessment of the overall environmental impact, including vehicle construction, power generation and disposal, of the scrapping of small, medium and large internal combustion engine powered vehicles and their replacement by equivalent electrically powered vehicles; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman: The Government has carried out a relative assessment, in terms of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, of different fuel and powertrain options based on outputs from the Transport Energy Model. The modelling makes clear that, even with the current electricity grid emissions, battery electric vehicles are estimated to have greenhouse gas emissions 66% lower than a petrol car and 60% lower than a diesel car. Between now and 2050 the Government project that grid emissions will fall by around 90% with total emissions from electric vehicles falling in parallel.As well as considering the greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, the Government have also considered the emissions from battery production. As battery production is an energy intensive process, the Government would also expect these emissions to fall over the period to 2050. The results are clear that battery electric vehicles have substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional vehicles even when taking into account the electricity source and electricity used for battery production.

Public Transport: Guide Dogs

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his policy is on supporting assistance dog owners in public transport spaces.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Assistance dogs play a vital role in helping their owners to travel independently, confidently and in safety, and it is essential that they are granted access to public transport services. Specific legislation and conditions of carriage protect assistance dog owners travelling on transport modes, by air, sea, and on land, and I urge authorities responsible for enforcing the rules to challenge discriminatory behaviour effectively. The Government has committed in its Inclusive Transport Strategy to raising public and transport staff awareness of the rights and needs of disabled passengers, so that everyone, including those travelling with assistance dogs, can reach their destination easily, confidently and at no additional cost.

Taxis: Disability

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his department plans to take to offer disability training to private hire drivers.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) provide a vital service for many disabled people. However, as of March 2018, only 38% of licensing authorities required drivers to complete disability awareness and equality training; I would urge the remainder to use their existing licensing powers to ensure that all taxi and PHV drivers have the knowledge and skills necessary to provide every passenger with the assistance they require. Ministers are considering the recommendations made in the report of the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing, including those intended to improve accessibility. A Government response will be issued in due course.

Taxis: Disability

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of refusals given to disabled passengers wishing to use private hire vehicles.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) have a statutory duty to advise Ministers on the transport needs of disabled passengers, and we have discussed with them the challenges that disabled people face when using taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs). Responsibility for enforcing the law on the carriage of wheelchair users and assistance dog owners rests with local licensing authorities however, and the Department does not collate data on service refusals. Illegal discrimination against disabled passengers is entirely without justification and I urge authorities to take robust action against any taxi or PHV driver failing to fulfil their legal duty.

Helicopters

Scott Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with the ICAO on the potential for banning single-engine helicopters for commercial flights.

Jesse Norman: The safety of the travelling public is a priority for the Government. All commercial helicopter operations are subject to strict safety requirements overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority as the UK’s specialist aviation safety regulator. The Department and the CAA work closely with ICAO on a range of aviation safety issues, but have had no specific discussions with International Civil Aviation Organisation on the potential for banning single-engine helicopters for commercial flights.

Railways: Standards

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the financial effect on business of decreases in rail punctuality.

Andrew Jones: The Department’s general approach to appraising the impact of delays and cancellations is published in the Department’s Transport Appraisal Guidance (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-analysis-guidance-webtag). There is a particular approach to appraising punctuality impacts for business users that takes into account the impact that the delay has on the business as well as the individual who is delayed. Unit A1.3 of the guidance explains how impacts on business users are assessed.

Crossrail Line: Ebbsfleet

Sir Michael Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the merits of extending Crossrail to Ebbsfleet.

Andrew Jones: At this crucial stage of the Crossrail project, it is essential that Government remains focused on the full delivery of the current agreed scheme as its priority. The promoters of the Crossrail to Ebbsfleet scheme have recently submitted a Strategic Outline Business Case to Government which is being considered. Any extension to the Elizabeth line would require a strong business case with a detailed evidence base that demonstrates the scheme would be both technically feasible and offer value for money, and also include the identification of funding.

Taxis: Disability

Sir Michael Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to introduce mandatory disability equality training for taxi drivers.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) provide a vital service for many disabled people. However, as of March last year, only 38% of licensing authorities required drivers to complete disability awareness and equality training; I would urge the remainder to use their existing licensing powers to ensure that all taxi and PHV drivers have the knowledge and skills necessary to provide every passenger with the assistance they require. This year we intend to consult on revised best practice guidance for taxi and PHV licensing authorities which will recommend that authorities require drivers to complete disability awareness and equality training and take robust action against those found to have discriminated against disabled passengers. Ministers are also considering the recommendations made in the report of the Chair of the Task and Finish Group on Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing, including the introduction of mandatory disability equality and awareness training. A Government response will be issued in due course.

Buses: Antisocial Behaviour

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of anti-social behaviour on buses.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The transport industry, local authorities, the police and others are already investing in and undertaking wide-ranging initiatives to improve the personal security of public transport passengers and staff and to keep our public transport systems as low crime environments.

Large Goods Vehicles: Licensing

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications his Department has received for European Conference of Ministers of Transport permits since November 2018; and how many such permits have been provided.

Chris Grayling: The Department received applications for a total of 11,392 permits from 1,991 operator licence holders. Following the application of allocation criteria previously set out to the House, 984 ECMT annual permits have been allocated to operators and a further 2,832 short term permits will start to be allocated by March 2019. The Government has secured additional ECMT permits for 2019 and is in discussions with road haulage stakeholders on the process for allocating these. While hauliers are keen to have certainty on ECMT permits, the Government does not expect these to be primary means of securing market access to the EU for UK hauliers, given good progress on the EU Commission’s proposal on reciprocal access, unilateral measures and bilateral agreements.

Crossrail Line: Burnham

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timeframe is for the Crossrail station in Burnham to become operational.

Andrew Jones: Crossrail Limited, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transport for London, is currently working on a revised delivery plan. Crossrail Limited has committed to delivering the full Elizabeth line services, including those to Burnham, as quickly as possible once the central tunnels have been completed, to provide a service that will carry up to 200 million passengers a year. Elizabeth line services will call at the existing station at Burnham which is currently, and will continue to be, served by Great Western Railway services.

A282: Road Traffic Offences

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many penalty notices issued as a result of images taken by the camera at the A282 Trunk Road Dartford Crossing Southbound were (a) challenged and (b) found to have been incorrectly issued.

Jesse Norman: Highways England does not hold data on the number of penalty notices issued for travelling specifically Southbound on the Dartford Crossing. All Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) are believed to be correct when issued in good faith by Highways England, but under the terms of the Dart Charge scheme PCNs may be contested under the representation and independent appeals procedure for a number of reasons - including circumstances where the charging authority followed all procedures correctly. Since the start of the scheme in November 2014, up to the end of December 2018, a total of 11,057,905 PCNs have been issued. Of these less than 1% (approximately 92,000) of the total are deemed by Highways England to have been issued incorrectly. This can be for a range of reasons but mainly includes the misreading of vehicle registrations and road user charge payments not being allocated as the payee intended.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, at what speeds High Speed 2 trains are planned to operate on the High Speed 2 Phase one section.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: Trains on High Speed 2 Phase 1 are planned to operate at up to 360km/h (225mph).

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Buckinghamshire

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timeframe is for the commencement of tunnelling works for HS2 in Buckinghamshire.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The anticipated timeframe for HS2’s main works civil contractor to mobilise to the Chiltern Tunnel south portal site is the second half of 2019. It is expected that the tunnel drive will start in late 2020.

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Buckinghamshire

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the most recent estimate is of the number of HS2 Ltd workers planned to be housed near the Phase one line in the Chesham and Amersham and Aylesbury constituencies.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Environmental Statement has 2 main areas of accommodation sites for construction workers in the Aylesbury area. The A41 Bicester Road has living accommodation for 60-200 people and the Small Dean Compound (near Wendover) has living accommodation for 170-240 people. There is no provision for living accommodation at the vent shaft sites in the Chesham and Amersham constituency.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the results of the review into the business case for High Speed Two Phase 1 will be published.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: HS2 Ltd are currently working with their contracted suppliers to update and agree the latest cost and schedule positions for Phase One. Once completed we will make these details public as part of the Phase One Full Business Case, which is due for publication later in 2019.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Domestic Appliances: Counterfeit Manufacturing

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Safety at Ports and Borders to prevent counterfeit electrical goods from entering the UK (a) currently and (b) after the UK has left the EU.

Kelly Tolhurst: This is done independently by National Trading Standards, and is publicly available here: https://www.nationaltradingstandards.uk/uploads/annual%20report%202017-18%20final.pdf

Research: Finance

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy what comparative assessment he has made of trends in the level of spending on research and development in the (a) UK and (b) EU member states.

Chris Skidmore: The Government is increasing public R&D spending by £7 billion by 2022, this is the largest increase on record.The department regularly assesses comparative levels of R&D expenditure in the UK and EU member states.The latest ONS data estimates that overall gross R&D expenditure in the UK was £33.1bn in 2016, which was 1.7% of GDP in that year. The latest OECD international comparison of R&D expenditure ranked the UK 10th among EU member states, with overall gross R&D expenditure in the EU28 estimated at 1.9% of GDP in 2016. More details can be found here http://oe.cd/msti

Business: Billing

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to publish a response to its consultation entitled Creating a responsible payment culture: a call for evidence on tackling late payment.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Wind Power

Christine Jardine: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure the growth of wind power is responsibly managed and taxpayer funded constraint payments to that sector are reduced.

Claire Perry: The taxpayer does not fund constraint payments. These payments are made by National Grid Electricity System Operator through competitive market arrangements as part of ensuring the secure and efficient operation of the electricity system. These arrangements predate the connection of wind farms to the transmission network by many years, and payments are made to various types of generation.

Business: Insolvency

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of year on year trends in the level of business insolvencies in each of the last seven years.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Overseas Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether proposals for projects using Official Development Assistance funds are evaluated by civil servants within his Department.

Chris Skidmore: All BEIS projects funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) are appraised by BEIS officials to assess quality, value for money, deliverability and alignment with Official Development Assistance (ODA) rules and strategic priorities. Projects funded from BEIS International Climate Finance (ICF) are appraised through detailed business cases, which go through BEIS approval processes that provide scrutiny and challenge before final sign-off at Ministerial level.For the two research and innovation funds, Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund, in line with the Haldane Principle which protects the independence of government-funded research, all research programmes are also evaluated by external expert groups with strong assurance processes and robust independent expert peer review processes.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Overseas Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department's Official Development Assistance-funded projects are evaluated by civil servants in his Department.

Chris Skidmore: All BEIS projects funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) are monitored and reported upon in line with DFID good practice. In addition, we ensure independent evaluations of all our major programmes. At the fund level, BEIS funds are also subject to scrutiny from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) that reviews our ODA spending and its development impact.BEIS research and innovation (R&I) ODA funds are administered by our expert delivery partners. These have strong monitoring and evaluation processes built into their delivery models.BEIS International Climate Finance (ICF) publishes annual reviews of progress on implementation, financial reporting and value for money.

Motor Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his oral contribution of 4 February 2019, Official Report column 73, how many car manufacturers operating in the UK have (a) applied successfully, (b) applied unsuccessfully and (c) not applied for support through those programmes conducted independently of the Government.

Richard Harrington: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Iraq Conflict

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether officials at his Department held discussions with representatives of (a) the US National Security Agency and (b) GCHQ on influencing UN Security Council vote in March 2003 on the second resolution to authorise intervention in Iraq.

Alistair Burt: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments not to comment on intelligence matters.The Government deplores the leaking of any classified information, wherever it occurs. Such leaks can make the work of maintaining the security of our own country and that of our allies more difficult.

Iraq Conflict

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information the Government holds on an operation to influence a vote at the UN Security Council on a second resolution to authorise an intervention in Iraq in March 2003.

Alistair Burt: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments not to comment on intelligence matters.The Government deplores the leaking of any classified information, wherever it occurs. Such leaks can make the work of maintaining the security of our own country and that of our allies more difficult.

Iraq Conflict

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department received a memo on 31 January 2003 from Frank Koza, Defence Chief of Staff (Regional Targets) entitled Reflections of Iraq Debate/Votes at UN-RT Actions + Potential for Related Contributions and published in The Observer on 2 March 2003, asking for information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals.

Alistair Burt: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments not to comment on intelligence matters.The Government deplores the leaking of any classified information, wherever it occurs. Such leaks can make the work of maintaining the security of our own country and that of our allies more difficult.

Iraq Conflict

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the article entitled Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war, published in the Observer on 2 March 2003, whether his Department undertook surveillance of representatives at the UN from (a) Angola, (b) Cameroon, (c) Chile, (d) Bulgaria, (e) Guinea and (f) Pakistan prior to the UN Security Council vote on a second resolution on intervention in Iraq.

Alistair Burt: It is the longstanding policy of successive British Governments not to comment on intelligence matters.The Government deplores the leaking of any classified information, wherever it occurs. Such leaks can make the work of maintaining the security of our own country and that of our allies more difficult.

Iraq: Politics and Government

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to support the development of democracy in Iraq.

Alistair Burt: ​The UK supports the consolidation of democracy in Iraq through both diplomatic engagement and programme support. During my visit to Baghdad and Erbil in January, I welcomed the recent national elections and those in the Kurdistan region and encouraged swift completion of the formation of the Iraqi cabinet and Kurdistan Regional Government. We recently welcomed the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and a delegation of Iraqi MPs to the UK where they were able to witness British parliamentary processes and exchange experiences. As part of our programme assistance, the UK is helping the Government of Iraq in newly liberated areas and in Basra to make governance and the delivery of services more effective and responsive, so strengthening relations between local communities and the Iraqi authorities.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish the (a) amounts and (b) recipients of Information Services expenses in excess of £5,000 in the last full financial year.

Sir Alan Duncan: We do not recognise "information services" as a category of expenditure.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish the (a) budgets and (b) recipients in excess of £10,000 in 2018-19 for programmes to support (i) human rights, (ii) good governance, (iii) international security, (iv) tackle illicit drugs and (v) anything else.

Sir Alan Duncan: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) departmental policy programme advances our foreign policy interests overseas, including in areas such as human rights, reform of the international system and a wide-range of other priority policy areas. The objectives of the Official Development Assistance-eligible aspects of the policy programme is published on the FCO's pages of gov.uk including the indicative budgets and actual spend. In addition we also publish details of departmental spending over £25,000 on a monthly basis on gov.uk, which includes expenditure under our departmental policy programme.

China: Ethnic Groups

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has held with representatives of the Governments of other UN Security Council member states on the possibility of a UN investigation into China’s detention of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang province.

Mark Field: We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang and the Chinese government’s deepening crackdown; including credible reports that over 1 million Uyghur Muslims have been held in re-education camps, and of widespread surveillance and restrictions targeted at ethnic minorities.During China’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council on 6 November, the UK made a statement which described our concern about the treatment of ethnic minorities in China, including Uyghurs. We issued a specific recommendation, calling on China to implement the recommendations by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Xinjiang, and to allow the UN to monitor the implementation.I raised our concerns about Xinjiang with Vice Minister Guo Yezhou during my visit to China on 22 July 2018. The Foreign Secretary also raised our concerns about the region with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his visit to China on 30 July 2018. We will continue to discuss this issue with a range of countries.

Venezuela: Politics and Government

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with representatives of Mercosur on the implications of the current political instability in Venezuela on their continued suspension from that organisation.

Sir Alan Duncan: We have had no discussions about Venezuela with Mercosur.

China: Foreign Relations

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the (a) aims and (b) objectives are of UK policy towards China.

Mark Field: The UK-China relationship is strong, growing, and delivering benefits for both countries. The government’s aims and objectives include increasing bilateral trade and investment across the UK, as well as cooperating on matters of global importance such as health, climate change, development, and regional security. Maintaining strong people to people links in areas such as tourism, education and culture is also important. At the same time, our strong partnership allows us to have frank discussions on issues where we disagree.

Sudan: Migrant Camps

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether people based in the camps around Omdurman, Sudan are refugees or internally displaced persons.

Harriett Baldwin: We understand that both South Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons from Sudan are based in the camps around Omdurman.

Darfur: Peace Negotiations

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress is being made towards a lasting peace deal in Darfur; which parties have (a) signed and (b) not signed the 2006 peace deal for that region.

Harriett Baldwin: ​We welcome the 6 December signing in Berlin of a "Pre-Negotiation Agreement for the Resumption of the Peace Process" in Darfur. We continue to press all parties to engage with the peace process, including progress towards a permanent ceasefire, and ensure full humanitarian access. The 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement (also referred to as the Abuja Agreement) was signed by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement – Mini Minnawi. This agreement was not signed by the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army – Abdul Wahid.

Darfur: Peace Negotiations

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government plans to take to support the resolution of the conflict in the Jebel Marra mountains in Darfur in Sudan.

Harriett Baldwin: The UK is deeply concerned by reports of conflict in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur and the impact on the civilian population. We continue to press for a peaceful solution. Senior UK officials in Khartoum raised the issue with the Government of Sudan's chief negotiator for Darfur on 5 February 2019. We continue to urge all parties to end military action, to allow unfettered access for the United Nations - African Union Mission in Dafur (UNAMID) and to humanitarian actors, and to engage meaningfully in the peace process to secure a permanent ceasefire.

Bahrain: Political Prisoners

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of political prisoners in Bahrain.

Alistair Burt: Holding answer received on 08 February 2019



We do not hold figures for the number of political prisoners in Bahrain.

Sri Lanka: Armed Conflict

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reasons his Department destroyed files on Sri Lanka dating from the 1970s and 1980s.

Mark Field: ​The FCO, as with all government departments, reviews all its files in line with the requirements of the Public Records Act before making a decision on permanent preservation. This applies to files from the 1970s and 1980s relating to Sri Lanka which the FCO reviewed under the Act.Selection of such records for permanent preservation took place under the guidance and supervision of The National Archives.The Public Records Act does not require departments to preserve files if they are of no long-term historical value. For instance, the FCO may destroy a file if it only contains administrative or ephemeral content or because it contains information which is already in the public domain.

Bahrain: Sexual Offences

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Bahraini counterpart on reports of sexual violence against female detainees in Bahrain.

Alistair Burt: Holding answer received on 08 February 2019



We encourage those with concerns about treatment in detention to report them to the appropriate Bahraini human rights oversight body. We continue to encourage these oversight bodies to carry out swift and thorough investigations into any such allegations.

Department for Exiting the European Union

Department for Exiting the European Union: Travel

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many (a) standard and (b) first-class tickets for train travel his Department has purchased in each of the last two years.

Chris Heaton-Harris: We are working hard to make our departure from the EU a success. Clearly this involves some travel for those staff engaged in negotiations, occasionally at short notice. Financial Year 16/17First-class tickets - 3Standard tickets - 119 Financial Year 17/18First-class tickets - 38Standard tickets - 1379

Brexit

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many ongoing workstreams there are throughout central Government on preparations for leaving the EU without a deal.

Chris Heaton-Harris: Delivering the deal negotiated with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. However, the Government is accelerating no deal preparations to ensure the country is prepared for every eventuality, as this is the responsible thing to do. As part of this, we are monitoring over 300 projects being delivered by departments across Government.

Schengen Agreement

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether he has had discussions with EU Ministers on the Schengen 90/180 rule and extending UK citizen's rights; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robin Walker: The Secretary of State meets regularly with EU counterparts to discuss issues related to our exit.During the implementation period, UK nationals will be able to travel, work and live in the EU as they do now.The Political Declaration makes clear that both sides will aim to provide visa-free travel for short-term visits, as well as other elements to support mobility in defined areas. We will be discussing the detail in the next phase of negotiations.Our proposals for visa-free travel will apply in the event of a deal or no deal. Conditions for entry and stay of third country nationals in the EU for more than 90 days are a matter for each Member State to determine. In the event of a no deal, UK nationals staying in the EU for longer than 90 days will be subject to individual Member States' immigration rules. UK nationals will therefore need to check individual Member State immigration rules for information regarding entry and stay that would not fall under the Schengen arrangements.The FCO provides travel advice to UK nationals travelling abroad on gov.uk. We have published advice on the steps that UK nationals may need to take to prepare for our exit from the EU, which can be found at gov.uk/euexit. The Government will publish any necessary updates in due course.

Department of Health and Social Care

Out-patients

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to launch its review of outpatient services; and if his Department will include in that review services for (a) rheumatoid arthritis, (b) inflammatory bowel disease, (c) psoriasis and (d) other immune-mediated inflammatory conditions.

Stephen Hammond: The Long Term Plan identifies the need to “redesign services so that over the next five years, patients will be able to avoid up to a third of face-to-face outpatient visits, removing the need for up to 30 million outpatient visits a year”. The work on outpatients is aimed at improving the patient experience, simplifying the process and where appropriate, enabling digital alternatives to attending a clinic in person. The implementation plan for delivering the Long Term Plan and this commitment is in the process of being developed and will build on:- The work hospitals are already developing in new models of care such as in Tower Hamlets Chronic Kidney Disease e-Clinics;- The elective care transformation programme’s extensive work reviewing different models of outpatients across various specialties and the work to review productivity, capacity and shift to digital; and- Clinical improvement identified by the Getting It Right First Time programme.

Diabetes: Medical Equipment

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the cost to the NHS is of each FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring device.

Steve Brine: The cost of 1 FreeStyle Libre sensor, 1 sensor applicator, and 1 wipe is £35 as listed in the February 2019 Drug Tariff. Net Ingredient Cost is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff.

Cancer: Diagnosis

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for which cancers is staging data not currently available; how he will measure progress to speeding up diagnosis for those cancers; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: There are 17 cancer sites for which no staging system exists, and therefore staging data is not held. In total these sites have 16,700 diagnoses annually, accounting for about 5.5% of the total cancers diagnosed in England. There are a further 67 cancer sites where some of the specific tumour morphologies are unstageable, and these account for a further 4,900 diagnoses annually (1.6% of cases). The numbers presented above are an average based on diagnoses in 2014-2016. We are completely clear that new 75% early diagnosis ambition covers all cancers that are capable of being staged, and not just the ten currently included in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) early diagnosis metric. We are keen to work with the hon. Member, Cancer Research UK and the charities representing some of the other cancers not currently included in the PHOF metric on how we best measure progress towards the ambition moving forwards. To that end NHS England is hosting a session on Monday 25 February to discuss progress towards the new early diagnosis ambition.

HIV Infection

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the barriers that may prevent England reaching zero HIV transmissions by 2030.

Steve Brine: An expert group is to be established to develop an ‘Ending HIV transmission in England Action Plan’ by the autumn of 2019 that will set out the key policies and activities to achieve the goal of ending HIV transmission in England by 2030. An important aspect of this will be identifying the barriers to individualised risk assessment and prevention advice, testing and early treatment, focusing on high-risk groups, particularly gay and bisexual men, people who inject drugs and black and minority ethnic group populations.

Allergies: Medical Equipment

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2018 to Question 198805, what progress has been made on increasing the supply of Epipens; and if he will make a statement.

Steve Brine: Supplies of EpiPen and other adrenaline auto-injectors are currently available in volumes that are sufficient to meet United Kingdom requirements. The Department continues to work very closely with all the manufacturers of adrenaline auto-injectors and can confirm that the supply situation continues to improve going forward with further deliveries expected over the coming weeks. All patients who require an adrenaline auto-injector should now be able to obtain a device from their pharmacy.

Bacteriophages

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of phage therapy for tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Steve Brine: The Department and the Wellcome Trust sponsored a strategic pipeline briefing into alternatives to antibiotics in 2015. The briefing reviewed the feasibility and potential clinical impact of alternatives to antibiotics, including bacteriophages, and considered approaches that were most likely to deliver new treatments in the next 10 years. The briefing concluded that bacteriophages were possible therapeutics, but too few were being progressed. The Government continues to invest in research into new and alternative treatments. While there has been increased investment and unprecedented levels of research collaboration on antimicrobial resistance, there are still relatively few projects looking at the use of bacteriophages.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to increase the level of investment and funding for training and employing NHS microbiologists on long term contracts to increase diagnostic capacity as part of the government strategy to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Steve Brine: ‘Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (2019-2024): the UK’s five-year national action plan’ includes the commitment to assess current and future workforce needs to ensure capability and capacity for strong infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship. The assessment will cover a range of roles, including microbiology. The results of the assessment will be used to develop further workforce targets. The NHS England Long Term Plan makes the commitment to implement the human health aspects of the national action plan.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to establish an evidential basis on the time taken to diagnose disease in the NHS as part of the Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy.

Steve Brine: ‘Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (2019-2024): the UK’s five-year national action plan’ recognises that stewardship programmes are needed for both therapeutics and diagnostics. Good diagnostic stewardship promotes appropriate and timely testing. Evidence suggests that a third of prescriptions in primary care do not have an associated diagnosis recorded. The national action plan sets out an ambition to improve the evidence base about diagnoses and prescriptions by linking and analysing clinical data sets. Through the joint sepsis/Antimicrobial Resistance Commissioning for Quality Innovation data we know that the number of patients being identified with a suspicion of sepsis or severe infection has increased and that a majority of those patients have their treatment reviewed within 24-72 hours, following the confirmation of diagnostic test results.

Antibiotics: Drug Resistance

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Government's strategy entitled Tackling antimicrobial resistance 2019–2024: The UK’s five-year national action plan, published in January 2019, what plans his Department has to educate the public on the use and misuse of antimicrobials and their role in tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Steve Brine: Public Health England has developed a number of initiatives for educating the public which support the Government’s recently published strategy to tackle antimicrobial resistance; including a major national campaign, ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’, following a successful pilot in the North West in October 2017, to alert the general public to the issue of antibiotic resistance, with the aim of reducing patient pressure on general practitioners to prescribe. The multi-media campaign, which features advertising on television, radio, outdoor, digital, social media, public relations and extensive partnership support, has run for a consecutive year in 2018. Further information is available at the following link: https://antibioticguardian.com/keep-antibiotics-working/ The United Kingdom wide Antibiotic Guardian campaign, now in its fifth year, aims to stimulate behaviour change and increase engagement to tackle antimicrobial resistance by healthcare professionals and engaged members of the public. The e-Bug programme, now celebrating its 10th year, aims to educate children, young people and communities about microbes, hygiene, infections and antibiotics. Further information on the e-Bug programme is available at the following link: www.e-Bug.eu

NHS: Drugs

Emma Dent Coad: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the frequency with which pharmacies and hospitals experience drug shortages.

Steve Brine: The production of medicines is complex and highly regulated and materials and processes must meet rigorous safety and quality standards. The Department has well established processes to manage and mitigate the small number of medicines shortages that may arise due to manufacturing or distribution issues. It should be noted that over two million prescription items are dispensed in England every day and the vast majority are not subject to supply problems. Our number one priority is to ensure the continued supply of medicines which is why we continue to work closely with industry and partners in the health system to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.

Air Pollution: Health Hazards

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment (a) his Department and (b) Public Health England has made of the health effects of (a) PM 0.1 and (b) PM 1 in those parts of England (i) with and (ii) without waste incineration plants.

Steve Brine: Recent assessments have been undertaken of the health effects of long-term exposure to the air pollution mixture in the United Kingdom. This was based on studies reporting associations of mortality risk with fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which includes PM1 and PM0.1, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), available to view at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-effects-on-mortality Public Health England funded a study to further extend the evidence base as to whether emissions from modern municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) affect human health. Study outputs concluded that the amount of particulate matter people are exposed to from MWI emissions is very low in Great Britain. The document can be viewed at the following link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b06478 No comparison has been made of PM emissions in areas with or without MWIs as overall they contribute very little to the emissions of particulate matter.

Air Pollution: Health Hazards

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information Public Health England holds on research on the health effects of emissions of perfluorooctanoic acid from waste incinerators.

Steve Brine: Public Health England holds little information on emissions of perfluorooctanoic acid from waste incinerators, and no papers on any potential associated health effects. The available literature suggests that perfluorinated chemicals are destroyed as part of the incineration process, and nor does combustion lead to formation of perfluorooctanoic acid. As such incineration is not expected to be a source of this substance in the environment and there would not be a pathway through which health effects could occur.

Drugs: Refrigerators

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2019 to Question 205244 on Drugs: Refrigerators, how many refrigerators his Department has purchased as part of contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU to date.

Stephen Hammond: As part of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit contingency planning contract agreements have been signed for the provision of storage. The contracts include capacity for 5,000 pallets of refrigerated warehouse storage.

Health Professions: Training

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to publicise his Department's consultation on mandatory training on learning disabilities for healthcare professionals.

Caroline Dinenage: We consulted with a wide range of organisations, including those representing people with learning disability, to develop the consultation document on mandatory training on learning disabilities for health and social care professionals. Once the consultation opens, we will seek to widely publicise the consultation, including through our arm’s length bodies, voluntary sector organisations, professional groups, and health and social care providers.

Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill (HL)

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 210488, which representative organisations for people with (a) dementia, (b) brain injuries and (c) learning difficulties he has met to discuss the effect of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill on those people.

Caroline Dinenage: The Law Commissions report on the Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty was published March 2017, in which they attended 83 events across England and received 583 written responses for their provisional proposal to reform the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. Further to the Law Commissions consultation events the department collectively carried out over 50 additional consultation events with stakeholders including local authorities and hospitals, numbering over 100 people, to inform the Mental Capacity Amendment Bill. Among those consulted were third sector, Government, health and care sector, professional bodies, National Health Service organisations, individuals with learning disabilities and Dementia. Representative organisations for those with dementia, brain injuries and learning disabilities include Mencap, Sense, Alzheimer’s Society, Headway, National Autistic Society, VoiceAbility, Voluntary Organisations Disability Group and more. The Department is engaging and will continue to consult widely with stakeholders on the development of the code of practice to ensure the Bill works as intended.

Blood: Donors

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the change has been in the number of people making blood donations between 2008 and 2018.

Jackie Doyle-Price: NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for the collection, manufacturing and issuing of blood products to the NHS in England. NHS Blood and Transplant collects around 1.5 million blood donations every year to make sure hospitals have the blood they need to treat patients. The following table below shows that the number of active blood donors has decreased by 11.61% between 2008 and 2018. DateActive Donors1January - December 20081,478,332January - Dec ember 20091,447,808January - December 20101,408,849January - December 20111,375,145January - December 20121,330,783January - December 20131,289,266January - December 20141,237,652January - December 20151,281,695January - December 20161,275,292January - December 20171,259,175January - December 20181,306,752Source: NHS Blood and Transplant Note:1The data are based on a two-year measure. This is because up until 2014, NHS Blood and Transplant’s active donor base was based on donors who had made at least one donation within two years, and not within one year as is now the case with NHS Blood and Transplant.

Juliet Bauer

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times and for what reasons NHS England chief digital officer Juliet Bauer met Livi in her official capacity.

Jackie Doyle-Price: Juliet Bauer had one meeting and one phone call with Livi in her capacity as Chief Digital Officer at NHS England;- January 2018 (phone call) - introductory discussion on Livi’s services and products; and- October 2018 (meeting) – discussion on the progress Livi had made in Sweden and whether the NHS could learn from this.

Myopia: Children

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of teenagers with myopia compared with previous generations; and what assessment he has made of the causes of myopia in teenagers.

Steve Brine: The Department has made no assessment of the numbers of teenagers with myopia compared with previous generations. The precise causes of myopia are not known but it is thought to be the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors that disrupt the development of the eye.

Dementia

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated by his Department to each county in England for (a) Alzheimer's and (b) dementia care per head of the diagnosed population in 2018.

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the funding was per head of population diagnosed with (a) Alzheimer's and (b) other forms of dementia for occupational therapy in each county in England in the 12 months for which figures are available.

Caroline Dinenage: This information is not collected centrally.

Slaughterhouses: Closed Circuit Television

Dr David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many slaughterhouses have (a) complied and (b) not complied with the order to install CCTV; and what steps the Food Standards Agency has taken against those who have failed to comply with that order.

Steve Brine: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) enforces legislation for animal welfare in slaughterhouses on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England, where CCTV legislation applies. All operating slaughterhouses in England were required to comply with the new CCTV legislation by 5 November 2018. The following table shows the status of compliance on 1 February 2019:  Number of SlaughterhousesCompliant228Not yet fully compliant7 (includes 3 not currently operating)Total slaughterhouses235 Of the seven not yet fully compliant, three are not currently operating due to seasonal operating patterns so compliance status of these slaughterhouses cannot be verified. The remaining four are operating within the deadline specified for their compliance in enforcement documents. 98% of currently operating slaughterhouses in England have fully compliant CCTV in place. Since 5 November 2018 the FSA has taken enforcement action against all non-compliant slaughterhouse operators. The Agency is following its standard hierarchy of enforcement and is working with slaughterhouse operators to ensure full compliance. To date this enforcement action has included verbal and written advice as well as formal Enforcement Notices with compliance deadlines.

Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which EU countries the Government has secured bilateral health agreements with in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Stephen Hammond: We want to secure reciprocal arrangements bilaterally with Member States in a ‘no deal’ scenario, so that no-one faces sudden changes to how they obtain healthcare. The United Kingdom and Irish Governments have both set out their firm intention to maintain the Common Travel Area and to protect the associated reciprocal rights enjoyed by UK and Irish nationals when in each other’s state, including access to healthcare services, whatever the terms of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. Bilateral work with Ireland in this area is at an advanced stage. The UK has approached and is in ongoing discussions with other Member States about protecting access to healthcare bilaterally, through reciprocal arrangements.

Royal Liverpool Hospital

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for the (a) completion of the programme of works and (b) new facilities to be open to patients at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Stephen Hammond: Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust expects its replacement contractor, Laing O’Rourke, to provide a finalised new construction programme by the end of March 2019. This will be included in a business case detailing the full costs and timescales for the delivery of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital which will be submitted for approval to NHS Improvement and the Department in April 2019. The Trust plans to make an announcement once these steps have been completed. At this stage the target handover date for the new hospital to the Trust is Q4 2020. However, there are significant and complex remedial works required to resolve the structural issues of the hospital and this needs to be fully factored into the construction programme that Laing O’Rourke are working on. The date at which the facility will be open to patients will depend on when construction has been completed.

Suicide

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list the (a) Government departments, b) executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies that have contributed to the Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Plan.

Jackie Doyle-Price: In 2018, the Department of Health and Social Care established a National Suicide Prevention Strategy Delivery Group (NSPSDG). The NSPSDG has developed the Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Workplan, which we published last month, and will be responsible for tracking, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the Workplan. Further information is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-prevention-cross-government-plan The NSPSDG comprises lead policy officials across Government and delivery agencies, including the voluntary and charitable sector through the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA), including:- Department of Health and Social Care;- Public Health England;- NHS England/ NHS Improvement (joint representative);- Care Quality Commission;- Ministry of Justice;- Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service;- Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody;- Office for National Statistics;- Home Office;- Department for Education;- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government;- Department for Work and Pensions;- Department for Transport;- Health Education England;- Highways England;- Chief Coroner’s Office;- Government Equalities Office;- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs;- British Transport Police;- Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport;- Local Government Association;- Association of Directors of Public Health; and- National Suicide Prevention Alliance. The membership of the NSPSDG will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it continues to reflect the strategic direction and priorities of the strategy. The Delivery Group will ensure that the Suicide Prevention Workplan is implemented and continues to evolve as new actions to prevent suicide are identified.

Social Services: Finance

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on preparations for the Adult Social Care Green Paper since 7 March 2017.

Caroline Dinenage: We are unable to provide the information requested as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Social Services: Finance

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of his Department’s budget has been spent on preparations for the Adult Social Care Green Paper since 7 March 2017.

Caroline Dinenage: We are unable to provide the information requested as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Social Services

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ministerial meetings have been held between his Department and (a) HM Treasury, (b) the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and (c) the Prime Minister’s Office in relation to the Adult Social Care Green Paper since 7 March 2017.

Caroline Dinenage: Since the Department became responsible for publishing the Green Paper in January 2018, Ministers from the Department have been in regular communication with Ministers from other Government Departments and the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss the development of the Green Paper on Adult Social Care.

Social Services

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings have been held between his Department and civil society organisations in relation to the Adult Social Care Green Paper since 7 March 2017.

Caroline Dinenage: Throughout the development of the Green Paper Ministers and officials have been meeting with and listening to members of civil society. We have records of the civil society organisations who have contributed through the Green Paper roundtable meetings and the Expert Group, however there are many people from civil society organisations who have also contributed through other channels which were less formal or not specifically targeted towards feeding into the Green Paper and their input has also been central in developing the Green Paper. Since the Department became responsible for publishing the Green Paper there have been:- Five meetings with the Expert Group;- Two roundtable meetings with organisations representing people with disabilities;- A roundtable meeting with organisations representing Carers; and- A roundtable meeting with Care and Support Alliance and their member organisations.The expert group includes the following people who have leading roles in civil society organisations:- Caroline Abrahams, Co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance and Charity Director of Age UK;- Dame Kate Barker, External Member of the Council at the University of Oxford;- Dr Eileen Burns, President of the British Geriatrics Society;- Imelda Redmond, National Director of Healthwatch;- Professor Paul Burstow, Chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence;- Sir Andrew Dilnot, Warden of Nuffield College Oxford; and- Baroness Martha Lane Fox, founder and Executive Chair of Doteveryone.

Care Homes: Domestic Visits

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which residential and nursing homes he has visited in an official capacity since 9 July 2018; and what the date was of each such visit.

Caroline Dinenage: Since 9 July 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has visited the following residential and nursing homes in his ministerial capacity. 19 July 2018Bridgeside Lodge Residential Care Centre, Islington, London10 September 2018Westbury Fields Retirement Village, Bristol23 November 2018Meadow View Residential and Community Care Centre, Matlock

Pharmacy

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the quantity of drugs having to be disposed of by NHS pharmacies; and what reasons are given for the disposal of those drugs.

Steve Brine: The Department has made no recent estimate of the quantity of drugs having to be disposed by National Health Service pharmacies. However, research commissioned by the Department to determine the scale, causes and costs of waste medicines in England and published in November 2010, found that the gross cost of unused prescription medicines in primary and community care in the NHS in England in 2009 was £300 million a year and that up to £150 million of this amount was avoidable. Much of the waste identified was not caused by failures on the part of either patients or professionals, but by factors such as illnesses progressing and treatment changes being required. It also found that the NHS was managing the problem of medicines wastage more robustly than ever before, wastage of medicines was not a systemic problem in the NHS and was no worse than other comparable countries. The report is available at the following link: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1350234/1/Evaluation_of_NHS_Medicines_Waste__web_publication_version.pdf Nevertheless, NHS England is taking further action to promote medicines optimisation, such that patients receive the right medicine, at the right dosage, at the right time, and mitigate medicines wastage. This includes the deployment of clinical pharmacists in general practice and care homes to undertake structured medication reviews.

Pharmacy

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to enable NHS pharmacies to redistribute sealed quantities of drugs that would otherwise become surplus and remain unused, for approved medical purposes (a) in the UK or (b) as part of the UK's international development programme.

Steve Brine: The Department is concerned about wastage from unused medicines and is keen to minimise unnecessary extra costs. However, it does not promote the reuse of returned medicines that have left a pharmacy and returned unused by patients. This is because it is not possible to guarantee the quality of returned medicines on physical inspection alone. When medicines are returned from patients’ homes, there is no way of knowing whether the medicines have been stored or handled appropriately. Some medicines may deteriorate if, for example, left too close to a radiator, in direct sunlight or exposed to the environment. As far as the United Kingdom’s international development programme is concerned, the World Health Organization’s ‘Guidelines for Medicines Donations’ updated in 2010 should be followed, which state that there should be no double standards in quality. If the quality of an item is unacceptable in the donor country, it is also unacceptable as a donation. The guidelines are available at the following link: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44647/9789241501989_eng.pdf;jsessionid=713DED104D92853AAAE51F04C521CAF7?sequence=1 Although it wishes to help, the Department would wish to avoid being accused of dumping unwanted or substandard items on poor and developing countries, which it does not use for patients in this country.

Radiotherapy

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he plans to provide to enable the new radiotherapy operational delivery networks to work collaboratively across multiple centres.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that the new radiotherapy operational delivery networks have an adequate level of IT infrastructure to work collaboratively.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for the new radiotherapy operational delivery networks will be allocated from the £20.5 billion of additional funding announced by the Government in 2018.

Steve Brine: NHS England has now published two new service specifications relating to the provision of radiotherapy services for adults which will take effect from 1 April 2019, as follows:- External beam radiotherapy services delivered as part of a radiotherapy network (adults); and- Operational delivery networks (ODN) for external beam radiotherapy services (adults).The specifications describe a number of requirements including:- Each ODN will be hosted by a single radiotherapy provider within the ODN;- Each ODN establishes a Network Oversight Group to facilitate the ongoing development of the Network;- The Network Oversight Group must be chaired by a provider Chief Executive Officer or Executive Director;- The Chair must be from a different provider to that of the ODN host; and- The Chair must be able to represent the wider cancer system, to enable consensus to be reached across organisational boundaries on the network plan and oversee the delivery of the work programme. In addition, NHS England, via the National Cancer Programme of Care, will establish an Implementation Oversight Group to provide support to radiotherapy networks as they form. The group will comprise specialised commissioners, Network Chairs and the ODN hosts together to share learning and drive improvement. It will also provide a conduit for progress reporting and issue escalation through to both the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group and the National Cancer Board. NHS England is working with NHS Digital and a small number of National Health Service providers to develop and test approaches to information governance and data sharing implications when using cloud-based technology solutions. They are also exploring options to upgrade radiotherapy planning system software to support information technology connectivity. They intend to disseminate the learning from these early test sites. NHS England is committed to ensuring the success of the ODNs and therefore intends to provide additional resources over and above the normal funding of radiotherapy services to support their establishment. The resources will be held by the ODN host provider who will be responsible for the programme management function, including the establishment and maintenance of a Network Oversight Group and any clinical subgroups needed to agree and implement change. NHS England also intends to provide addition investment in each year of the Long Term Plan to support information technology connectivity across Networks including the use of digital solutions. NHS England intends to test a number of approaches to explore the information governance and technical requirements required in the last few months of this year. This will include testing a number of models that we think will be relevant in different geographies across the country (e.g. rural, providers not on same system etc.) Specific funding will be confirmed in due course once NHS England has worked through these issues with three test sites across England.

NHS: Procurement

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2018 to Question 202794 on the NHS's comprehensive assessment of supply lines, whether his Department conducted analysis of the data on supply chain reviews throughout the health and care system; and whether his Department plans to publish the results of the analysis it has so conducted.

Stephen Hammond: The Department has conducted reviews of supply chains across the health and care system to assess commercial risks. The results of these reviews were received at the end of November, and the Department is conducting analysis on the data that will be used to provide additional guidance to trusts and foundation trusts. This additional guidance will be communicated to trusts and foundation trusts during February.

Hospitals: Medical Equipment

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2018 to Question 202793 on Hospitals: Medical Equipment, when the Government plans to publish its plans on keeping an open border to maintain the supply of medical equipment to the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

Stephen Hammond: The Government remains committed to leaving the European Union with a deal. Under the conditions of the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be a two year Implementation Period within which the Government will negotiate the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the EU. During the Implementation Period, there will be no change to the current trading arrangements with the EU and European Economic Area, meaning the supply of medicines and medical products will continue unhindered. However, as a responsible Government, we are preparing for all exit scenarios, including the possibility that the UK leaves the EU without a deal. In December 2018, the Government announced that preparations were being put in place to mitigate against the potential for up to six months of severe disruption to the short strait crossing routes via Dover and Folkestone. Additional freight capacity on roll-on, roll-off routes has now been secured, and there is cross-Government agreement that all medicines and medical products will have priority access to this capacity, ensuring continuity of supply for patients is maintained.

NHS

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 204488 and with reference to (a) waiting times, (b) staff vacancies and (c) medicine supplies, how specifically leaving the EU will lay the foundation for a strong NHS.

Stephen Hammond: The National Health Service budget will increase by £33.9 billion in cash terms, the equivalent of £20.5 billion in real terms, by 2023/24, reflecting that the NHS is this Government’s top spending priority. The additional funding will allow the NHS to get back on the path to delivering core performance standards. It will also drive the reforms that deliver a better and more sustainable NHS with improved care for patients. In its estimate of the funding required to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan, the Department has not assumed any change in investment after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The NHS has confirmed the Long Term Plan is fully costed. The extra funding for the NHS will still apply in all exit scenarios in order to ensure it is there for the long term. The UK and EU reached an agreement to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU. The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 167,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. We have been working with health and social care employers across the whole of England to ensure their EU employees are aware of the straightforward and user-friendly EU settlement scheme which will allow them to secure settled status in the UK and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now. The Government remains committed to leaving the EU with a deal. Under the conditions of the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be a two-year Implementation Period within which the Government will negotiate the UK’s future relationship with the EU. During the Implementation Period, there will be no change to the current trading arrangements with the EU and European Economic Area (EEA), meaning the supply of medicines and medical products will continue unhindered. However, as a responsible Government, we are preparing for all exit scenarios, including the possibility that the UK leaves the EU without a deal. The Department is enquiring with parties across Government and industry to ensure continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained. We asked industry to stockpile an additional six weeks’ supply of prescription-only and pharmacy medicines which come to the UK from or via the EU/EEA, over and above usual buffer stocks. The Government is working to ensure that there is sufficient roll-on, roll-off freight capacity to enable these vital products to continue to move freely in to the UK in a ‘no deal’ scenario. The Department is working closely with the Department for Transport to ensure all medicines and medical products are prioritised on these alternative routes to ensure that the flow of all these products will continue unimpeded after 29 March 2019. On 7 December 2018, the Department wrote to pharmaceutical companies that supply licensed medicines to the UK from or via the EU/EEA, and/or manufacture medicines in the UK, informing them of the updated reasonable worst-case scenario border disruption planning assumptions and asking them about their current transportation routes and their ability to re-route their supply chains if they currently rely on Dover and/or Folkestone. Since then we have been working closely with those companies to better understand their supply chains and the potential for rerouting in a ‘no deal’ scenario.

Mental Health and Employers Independent Review

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214031 on Mental Health and Employers Independent Review, on what date the Work Leadership Council next plans to meet.

Jackie Doyle-Price: The Thriving at Work Leadership Council is an employer-led group and they are aiming to meet for a second time in April 2019.

Department for International Development

Venezuela: Food

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her Venezuelan counterpart on addressing the food shortages in that country.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the scale of food shortages affecting Venezuela.

Alistair Burt: The Foreign Secretary discussed the humanitarian crisis with Venezuela’s constitutional, interim President, Juan Guaidó, on 30 January. The UK Government is extremely concerned about the situation in Venezuela and continues to call for all actors to allow unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to meet the urgent needs of the Venezuelan people.   There is a lack of official data from the Maduro regime, but the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that approximately 4.1 million people are currently undernourished.   We remain in touch with partners in the region, including through British Embassies and DFID advisers deployed to the region. DFID continues to work closely with, and provide significant core funding to, the UN and Red Cross movement, while actively looking at how we may enhance our efforts to support the response to the Venezuela crisis.

Overseas Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what staff resources her Department provides to (a) the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (b) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and (c) the Home Office to support the evaluation of Official Development Assistance-funded (i) project proposals and (ii) completed projects.

Alistair Burt: It is difficult to quantify the totality of DFID staff time spent to support evaluation of projects in these departments. DFID supports evaluation of project proposals through representation on formal cross-government or sectoral governance mechanisms, and through collaboration and close working of officials. DFID makes available its independent evaluation and quality assurance service and contributes to production of cross-government guidance. The Aid Strategy is clear that individual departments are ultimately responsible for the final design and evaluation of their projects.

Department for Education

Adoption and Free Schools

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil servants in his Department work on the (a) free school and (b) adoption policy streams; and how many civil servants worked on those streams in June 2016.

Anne Milton: Holding answer received on 07 February 2019



Civil servants working within the Free Schools Directorate are responsible for the policy development and the delivery of the free schools programme. They are supported by civil servants working within the Free Schools Capital Division, who are responsible for finding sites and buildings, and refurbishing existing buildings for new free schools. The Free Schools Programme is predominantly delivered by central government, with tightly prescribed responsibilities for local authorities. As of 5 February 2019, there are approximately 290 full-time equivalent civil servants working in the Free Schools Directorate and within the Free Schools Capital Division (which sits in the Operations Directorate). In June 2016, there were slightly fewer civil servants working within Free Schools Directorate and the Free Schools Capital Division.As of 5 February 2019, there are approximately 15 full-time equivalent civil servants working on adoption policy in the Social Care, Mobility and Disadvantage Directorate. In June 2016, there were approximately 20 full-time equivalent civil servants working on adoption policy in the Social Care, Mobility and Disadvantage Directorate. These civil servants are responsible for national adoption policy. The majority of the delivery of adoption policy is carried out by the local adoption agencies in each top tier local authority, based on the statutory requirements.

Department of Education: Brexit

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect the delivery of his Department's policy streams of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Anne Milton: The government, including the department, is accelerating no deal preparations to make sure that the country is prepared for every eventuality.The Civil Service is focused on delivering the government’s most pressing priorities, so it is only sensible that we make use of the resources and expertise that we have available to make sure that the UK is prepared for all Brexit scenarios on exit day.

T-levels: Solihull

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his 30 January 2019 news story entitled £38 million T Level Capital Fund launches, how much of that £38 million he plans to allocate to schools in Solihull.

Anne Milton: The T Level Capital Fund is for 2020 providers only and will be delivered in two parts. No providers have been selected to provide T levels in the academic year 2020 to 2021 within Solihull.Eligible further education providers who have been selected to deliver T levels in the academic year 2020 to 2021 are able to bid for funding to refurbish their existing buildings or, where there is strong evidence to suggest a pressing need, to build new spaces. The results from this process will be known in summer 2020.Funding for specialist equipment, such as digital and audio-visual kit, will be allocated to providers who have been selected in spring 2020 to deliver T levels in the academic year 2020 to 2021. We will make allocations using a formula based on the T level routes and the student numbers expected by the providers.

Apprentices

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts there were in (a) England and Wales and (b) Solihull constituency in each academic year since 2015.

Anne Milton: The department collects apprenticeships data for England.The attached table shows the number of apprenticeship starts in the Solihull parliamentary constituency and in England since the 2014-15 academic year.These figures are published in our apprenticeships geography data tool:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships.  



216336_Solihull_and_England_apprenticeship_starts
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Adult Education: Finance

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) employers and (b) organisations that offer retraining programmes that are funded by the adult skills budget.

Anne Milton: In 2017-18, there were 650 providers that delivered level 2 learning aims and qualifications through the adult education budget (excluding apprenticeships). The majority of the level 2 qualifications delivered are to learners who already have a level 2 or equivalent qualification.

Pupil Exclusions: Reviews

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the review of exclusions practice led by Edward Timpson CBE will publish its final report.

Nick Gibb: ​In March 2018, the Government launched an externally-led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review is exploring how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It is also considering the differences in exclusion rates across primary and secondary schools in England.​The review has gathered substantial evidence, including over 900 submissions to the call for evidence. Edward Timpson has also chaired a series of roundtables and the review has met with over 100 organisations and individuals, including schools, local authorities, parents and children. The review will report in this term.

Social Services

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) guidance and (b) regulations have been produced on how social workers are able to spend devolved budgets in relation to What Works Centre change projects in (a) Darlington Borough Council, (b) Hillingdon Borough Council and (c) Wigan Council.

Nadhim Zahawi: Darlington, Hillingdon and Wigan each have a contract in place with Cardiff University setting out that the devolved budgets are to be used by social workers to support families under Section 17 of the Children Act (1989). Each local authority is required to use appropriate procedures for governance and reporting of expenditure as a condition of receiving funding.

Specialist Schools: Complaints

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's guidance is on the (a) use of, (b) reporting requirements on the use of and (c) complaint mechanisms for parents of children who have been subjected to restrictive practices in specialist schools.

Nadhim Zahawi: Schools need to be safe and calm environments, with effective behaviour management policies and approaches that meet the needs of pupils. At times, it may be necessary to use reasonable force to restrain a pupil: for example to break up a fight in order to protect teachers and other pupils. Our guidance on ‘Use of reasonable force’ provides further information about when reasonable force can be used in schools (see https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444051/Use_of_reasonable_force_advice_Reviewed_July_2015.pdf). The Department for Education, in conjunction with the then Department for Health, consulted last year on new advice to reduce the need for restraint and restrictive intervention for children and young people with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions and mental health difficulties in health and social care services and specialist education settings. We are currently considering responses to the consultation. Information about schools’ use of restrictive practices is not held centrally. We trust schools to develop their own policies and strategies for managing disruptive behaviour according to their particular circumstances. As part of this, schools should consider whether additional training for staff is needed. When serious incidents occur, we would expect schools to record the incident and let the parents know. If a parent wishes to complain, they can raise a formal complaint by following the school’s complaint procedure, which the school must provide on request. If parents continue to be dissatisfied, they can make a complaint in writing to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Parents also have the right to make disability discrimination claims to the First-tier Tribunal if they believe that the school has discriminated against their disabled child.

Schools: Durham

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what resources his Department provides to Durham County Council for (a) the extension and modernisation of dilapidated school buildings and (b) the construction of new schools.

Nick Gibb: The Department’s priorities for investment in the school estate are to ensure there are enough school places, and that the school estate is safe. Since 2015, the Department has allocated £6 billion in condition funding to those responsible for maintaining school buildings across the country. As part of this, Durham local authority receives an annual school condition allocation to invest in maintenance priorities across its maintained schools – in 2018-19 they received £5.4 million. Maintained schools in Durham also received their own capital allocations, totalling £3.5 million in 2018-19. This includes their allocation from the additional £400 million of capital funding, announced at Budget 2018. These figures do not include academies and voluntary aided schools, which receive separate funding. The Department provides basic need funding to support the provision of school places so that local authorities can fulfil their statutory responsibility to secure sufficient provision. Durham received £13.3 million to provide new school places from 2011-18 and has been allocated a further £6.5 million from 2018-21. This funding is not ringfenced, so local authorities can decide how best to spend that money to deliver their responsibilities. It can be used to work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. Durham has also been allocated £2.2 million from the special provision capital fund, from 2018-21, helping to create new places and improve facilities for pupils special educational needs and disabilities. As in the case of basic need funding, it is not ringfenced and can be used as local authorities see fit to improve special provision in their local areas. This funding for new school places and condition sits alongside our investment in central free schools and the Priority School Building Programme. The Priority School Building Programme is rebuilding or refurbishing buildings in the worst condition at over 500 schools across England, including eight schools in Durham County council’s area.

Special Educational Needs: Nottinghamshire

Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding his Department has allocated for special needs provision in schools in Nottinghamshire in each year since 2013.

Nadhim Zahawi: Local authorities are required to provide schools with sufficient funds to enable mainstream schools to meet the additional cost of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, up to the value of £6,000. This funding comes from the schools’ block of the Dedicated Schools Grant. While authorities will identify a notional special educational needs (SEN) budget for each school within the school’s overall budget, that notional budget is not ring-fenced, and schools are expected to manage their overall budget to best meet the needs of all their pupils, including pupils with SEN.When the costs of additional support required for a pupil with SEN exceed £6,000, the local authority should also allocate additional top-up funding to cover the excess costs. This top-up funding, and all funding for special schools comes from the local authority’s high needs budget. In December 2018, we announced an additional £250 million in high needs funding across the current financial year and the next, bringing Nottinghamshire’s total high needs funding to £64.0 million in 2018-19.The schools and high needs allocations for Nottinghamshire since 2013-14 are as follows: YearSchoolsHigh needs2013-14£435.3 million£53.4 million2014-15£436.2 million£56.2 million2015-16£441.6 million£56.7 million2016-17£447.8 million£57.3 million2017-18£459.4 million£59.8 million2018-19£469.1 million£64.0 million

Special Educational Needs

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support parents and carers in the education, health and care need assessment process.

Nadhim Zahawi: The Children and Families Act (2014) requires local authorities to provide children, young people and parents with information, advice and support about special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to work with them to develop a local offer.Where children and young people are going through an education, health and care needs assessment, their parents or carers are able to get help from the local information, advice and support (IAS) service which is a useful source of information to help them understand the process and participate fully in it. There are IAS services in every local area and can be found through this link: https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/information-advice-and-support-services-network/find-your-local-ias-service. Between June 2018 and March 2020, the government is providing £20 million to improve the quality of IAS services. The government also funds parent carer forums (PCFs). These forums bring parents together to help support other parents of disabled children, and as a way to work with the local authority to influence local SEND provision. We are continuing to provide funding for PCFs, with £15,000 per forum (£2.3 million in total) in 2019-20.

Special Educational Needs

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children and young people who have speech, language and communication needs as their primary need are (a) 0-5, (b) 5-16, (c) 16-18 and (d) 18-25 years old; and how many have Education, Health and Care plans there are for each of those age groups.

Nadhim Zahawi: Information requested on type of need, by age group for all children and young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, is not held centrally. This information is however available for those in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools.Figures showing the number of children and young people with an EHC plan by age group is published in the ‘Statements of SEN and EHC plans’ publication available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2018.Figures showing the number of children in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools who have speech, language and communication needs as their primary need by age are published in the ‘Special educational needs in England’ publication available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2018.

Ministry of Justice

Social Services: Children

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases concerning the Children's Act received legal aid in each year since 2011.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for legal aid in cases concerning the Children's Act were rejected in each year since 2011.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have received legal aid in cases concerning care proceedings in each year since 2011.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people received legal aid for harassment cases in each year since 2011.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were rejected for legal aid for harassment cases in each year since 2011.

Lucy Frazer: Holding answer received on 04 February 2019



The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) does not track the number of ‘people’ or ‘cases’ which receive public funding. Each application is assessed on its own merits; individuals may receive legal aid multiple times throughout their lives and one grant will not necessarily correspond with one case. The figures below therefore are reflective of the number of times legal aid was awarded (or not) in the proceedings enquired about. An application may not be granted for a variety of reasons. This could be for instance because of the means of the applicant, a lack of merit (where the circumstances of the case are unsuitable for public funding), or because of an administrative error with the application itself. Figures concerning applications which were not granted are inclusive of all of these reasons. Please note that for matters funded under ‘Legal Help’, the application process is devolved to the solicitor, and therefore the LAA does not hold information on how many applications were unsuccessful. For all volumes concerning Legal Help, these refer to those cases billed in that period, as this information is reported to the LAA in arrears once a case has concluded. Volumes on cases granted civil representation are based on closed cases. Volumes on cases not granted funding are based on the time the application was refused. Wherever you are in England and Wales, advice for welfare matters remains available through a telephone gateway, and face to face advice is available for cases alleging unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation under the Equality Act 2010 or previous discrimination enactment. Legal aid continues to be available for legal advice and representation for public family law cases, such as care and supervision proceedings. Funding in those cases is available to the children and those with parental responsibility with no further tests as to means or merits being required.  We want to make sure the family justice system puts the interests of children first and minimises the distress that separation causes for families. Our focus is on protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring parents can navigate the system and understand the different options available to resolve their disputes. Legal aid granted in cases concerning care proceedings in each year since 2011.  Civil Representation2010-1127,1172011-1234,7302012-1342,1852013-1454,1952014-1546,8232015-1642,7392016-1748,9412017-1856,942Apr-Sep 201829,162  This information is not available for matters funded at Legal Help as data on such pre-proceedings advice is not broken down to the level required to identify the specific proceedings involved. Legal aid granted/not granted for Children Act cases in each year since 2011.  Civil Representation2010-1177,9002011-1288,9152012-1392,5272013-14105,8202014-1579,6382015-1662,8822016-1766,4612017-1875,950Apr-Sep 201839,108  Not granted2010-116,8012011-125,6042012-137,6852013-142,8552014-152,6542015-163,0722016-173,8282017-183,574Apr-Sep 20182,177  This information is not available for matters funded at Legal Help as data on such pre-proceedings advice is not broken down to the level required to identify the Act involved. Legal aid granted/not granted for harassment cases in each year since 2011. Civil RepresentationLegal Help2010-114158132011-123252502012-132751422013-14182532014-15133342015-16109212016-1784182017-188118Apr-Sep 2018417  Not granted2010-11852011-12642012-13452013-14212014-15242015-16402016-17412017-1827Apr-Sep 201812

Prisoners: Sexual Offences

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the recommendations in the report, Management and supervision of men convicted of sexual offences, published by HM Inspectorate of Probation in January 2019, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Excellence and Quality in Process is improved.

Lucy Frazer: We are grateful to H M inspectorates for their helpful report. We will publish an action plan shortly, setting out our comprehensive response to the report’s recommendations and conclusions. The Inspectorates recognised that the EQuiP (Excellence and Quality in Process) system is a work in progress. We will consider the report’s observations in relation to EQuiP as we continue to develop the system.

Sexual Offences: Compensation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average payment made to adult victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse were by gender under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in each of the last five years.

Lucy Frazer: The data provided relates to applications for incidents of sexual assault or abuse made from 1 February 2015 until 30 January 2019. The data provided is from 1 February 2015 onwards, as from this date applicants for criminal injuries compensation were required to provide details of the category of crime which caused their injuries. YearGenderAverage Value of Award2015 (from 1 February)M£11,9262015 (from 1 February)F£11,0702016M£10,7202016F£11,5122017M£12,7892017F£12,3452018M£11,0732018F£12,7102019 (to 30 January)M£13,1302019 (to 30 January)F£12,758

HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Merseyside

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many HM Courts and Tribunal Service buildings, including Court and Tribunal buildings have been operated in Merseyside in each year between 2010 and 2018.

Lucy Frazer: Financial YearNumber of operational court and tribunal buildings in Merseyside, position at the end of the financial year2017/1872016/1772015/16*72014/1582013/1482012/1392011/1292010/1112* In 2015/16 Liverpool Magistrates’ Court (Dale street) was integrated into the Liverpool Single Centre for Crime QEII building. While this resulted in a building closure, the court was relocated nearby in Liverpool rather than closed. The decision to close a court is never taken lightly. For each court closure, we conducted a public consultation exercise and considered the responses we received very carefully. The Lord Chancellor has only agreed to close courts when satisfied that effective access to justice would be maintained.

Employment Tribunals Service

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was for employment tribunal claims to reach their first hearing in 2018.

Lucy Frazer: HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) can only provide data for the period 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2018.The average length of time for employment tribunal claims to reach their first hearing from 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2018 is: Single claims1 30 weeks All claims2 31 weeks HMCTS has been working with the tribunal’s judiciary to appoint additional judges to increase the capacity and performance of the tribunal. We expect a further 54 salaried employment judges to take up positions from April 2019 onwards. 1 Single claims are made by a sole employee/worker, relating to alleged breaches of employment rights.2 Multiple claims are where two or more people bring proceedings arising out of the same facts, usually against a common employer. In this instance the lead multiple claim would be listed for hearing. This information provides the average length of time for both single and lead multiple claim cases.3 A claim may contain one or more jurisdictional complaints (grounds for the claim). Depending upon the complexity of the jurisdiction this may influence the listing of such claims.4 All data were taken from the Employment Tribunals Central database and as such is management information that is provisional and subject to change.Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and are the best data available.5 “Data Source: Employment Tribunal Central database”.

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies are not disadvantaged by any restructuring of probation services; and if he will make a statement.

Lucy Frazer: The Department recognises that the expertise and commitment of voluntary sector organisations is vital in helping offenders turn their lives around. The Department aims to encourage greater involvement of the voluntary sector in the provision of probation services through the next generation of probation contracts. We undertook a public consultation on this and other proposals to improve probation in summer 2018, and we are currently reflecting on the feedback received as we refine and test our plans. In particular, the Department is exploring which commercial and commissioning arrangements will best promote the involvement of the voluntary sector and how to encourage providers to develop their supply chains. Additionally, we are considering the ways in which a strengthened regional role for the HMPPS can foster closer links between providers and voluntary sector organisations.

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of inspectorate reports of (a) for-profit and (b) not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of reoffending rates of offenders supervised by (a) for-profit and (b) not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of employment terms and conditions at (a) for-profit and (b) not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of the financial stability of (a) for-profit and (b) not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of the number of probation workers leaving the National Probation Service to join (a) for-profit and (b) not-for-profit community rehabilitation companies.

Lucy Frazer: We want a probation system which protects the public, commands the confidence of the courts and reduces reoffending We are taking decisive action to stabilise and improve the delivery of probation services. We are ending current Community Rehabilitation Company contracts early and investing £22m per year to enhance Through The Gate services. We have introduced minimum standards so that all providers offer monthly face-to-face meetings with offenders during the first 12 months of supervision. No comparative assessment of “for-profit” and “not-for-profit” CRCs has been undertaken by the Ministry of Justice. Robust assurance of Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) performance is provided through operational contract management backed up by regular Operational Assurance audits, and Internal Audit activity as required. There is regular monitoring of service delivery, including a focus on validating published performance management information. CRC performance information showing services levels against a range of measures is released quarterly as part of the Community Performance Quarterly Management Information.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-mi-update-to-june-2017

Community Rehabilitation Companies

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what contingency arrangements his Department has in place in the event of new contractual arrangements not being ready by the time current contracts with community rehabilitation companies terminate in 2020; and if he will make a statement.

Lucy Frazer: We keep our delivery plans and milestones under constant review and have appropriate contingency plans in place to ensure that probation services can continue to be delivered up until the point that new arrangements are implemented.

Prisons

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has (a) spent to date and (b) plans to spend in relation to prisons to prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Lucy Frazer: Delivering a revised deal negotiated with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. This has not changed. The Government is accelerating no deal preparations to ensure the country is prepared for every eventuality. The Ministry of Justice was allocated £17.3m in 18/19 and £30m in 19/20 from HMT specifically for EU-related activities. Robust plans are in place to ensure EU Exit related allocations are spent in an appropriate and efficient way across all business areas in the MoJ. This has allowed the department to prepare effectively for the potential impact on prisons, in any EU exit scenario.

Children: Custody

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many instances of non-compliance with Practice Directive 12J have been recorded since its implementation.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how his Department deals with proven cases of non-compliance with Practice Directive 12J.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department provides on compliance with Practice Directive 12J.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to revise Practice Directive 12J to improve compliance.

Lucy Frazer: We are determined to improve the experience of victims of domestic abuse in the family justice system. A revised version of Practice Direction 12J, which sets out a framework for judges to use in child arrangements cases where there is a context of domestic abuse, was introduced in October 2017. The revision made several amendments to the practice direction that were intended to place greater emphasis on the indirect harm that domestic abuse can cause to a child and non-physical forms of abusive behaviour. The final decision in a child arrangements case is made by the judge, based on their assessment of the evidence and the risk present within each case. The Ministry of Justice does not hold data relating to the use of Practice Direction 12J within individual cases, as data collected on private law children cases does not routinely record which cases involve allegations of domestic abuse. The Judicial College has provided all family judges and magistrates with training on how to address the challenges faced by vulnerable people, including victims of domestic abuse, and issues of domestic abuse are addressed on an ongoing basis as part of the college’s regular training programme. The Ministry of Justice will continue to work with other relevant departments and stakeholders to consider how we can better protect vulnerable mothers and children in our courts. This includes working with the judiciary on how existing practice directions are followed.

Small Claims: Industrial Accidents

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of non-road traffic workplace accident claims that will be affected by the increase to the small claims limit.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the percentage of non-road traffic accident cases for workplace claims that will move from the fast track to small claims track due to the proposed increases to the small claims limit.

Lucy Frazer: Holding answer received on 07 February 2019



The Government’s reform to increase the small claims limit for employers and public liability claims to £2,000 is in line with inflation, consistent with the way that increases to the Judicial College Guidelines are calculated. The increase will lead to a similar breadth of non-road traffic claims being affected as were when the limit was set at £1,000 in 1991.This issue was debated in depth in both Houses during the passage of the Civil Liability Act 2018, and further information is also available in the Government’s consultation response which outlines its assessment and decision on this issue at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-soft-tissue-injury-whiplash-claims-process .

Children: Custody

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral contribution of 5 February 2019, when the President of the Family Division plans to report back on his review of the guidance provided under Practice Direction 12J.

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral contribution of 5 February 2019, what powers the Domestic Abuse Commissioner will have to investigate matters relating to Practice Direction 12J.

Edward Argar: In light of the important issues raised by the Sammy Woodhouse case, Lucy Frazer has asked the President of the Family Division of the High Court to look at Practice Direction 12C that provides guidance on the notification of parents without parental responsibility in family cases and he has committed to doing that. Officials at the Ministry of Justice continue to work with other relevant departments and stakeholders to consider how we can better protect vulnerable mothers and children in our family courts however, at present, there are currently no plans to ask the President to review the guidance provided under Practice Direction 12J, however it was this subject on which I agreed to meet the Honourable Member. The role of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner introduced through the draft Domestic Abuse Bill is intended to provide public leadership on domestic abuse issues. They will raise awareness of the issue of domestic abuse and will monitor and oversee the provision of domestic abuse services across England and Wales, including the services available for children and young people. The specific statutory powers of the commissioner will continue to be developed and refined as the bill passes through pre-legislative scrutiny. I look forward to meeting the Honourable Member to discuss further how these powers might operate in practice, as promised in my response on 5th February.

Prisons: Drugs

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice,  pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2019 to Question 210641 on Prisons: Drugs, what information his Department holds on the number of incidents where staff may have been exposed to psychoactive substances.

Lucy Frazer: We take all reports of the effects of secondary inhalation of psychoactive substances very seriously as protecting the health and safety of both our prisoners and our staff is our priority.We are looking very closely at the information we receive on reported incidents but are currently unable to ascertain reliably whether an incident might be associated with secondary exposure to a psychoactive substance. We are working closely with Public Health England to understand the issue and to ensure that we respond appropriately.While we continue to assess the risks posed by secondary exposure, we seek to mitigate any risks as far as possible and have revised our internal guidance on controlling these. The revised guidance will be published shortly and includes information on how to assess and control risk on entry into cells where psychoactive substances have been used, with more detail on specific airborne risks and control methods, and clearer guidance on responding to and investigating exposure.

Prisons: Education

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether companies that gain contracts to provide prison education will be required to recognise trades unions; and if he will make a statement.

Lucy Frazer: The Ministry of Justice has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Special Educational Needs: Tribunals

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of a case being taken to the First-tier Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal .

Lucy Frazer: The Ministry of Justice has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Convictions

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who previously had (a) no, (b) between one and four, (c) between five and nine, (d) between 10 and 15, (e) between 16 and 25, (f) between 26 and 50, (g) between 51 and 75, (h) between 76 and 100 and (i) 101 or more convictions, were convicted in each of the last three years but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence.

Lucy Frazer: The data relate to convictions for all criminal offences, imprisonable and non-imprisonable. Non-imprisonable offences will never result in a custodial sentence: the maximum penalty is a fine. Sentencing must match the severity of the crime. We will always hold in prison those criminals whose offences are so grave that no other penalty will suffice. However, sentences should also rehabilitate. There is persuasive evidence showing short sentences do not work in helping some offenders turn their backs on crime. The number of people convicted of (a) no, (b) between one and four, (c) between five and nine, (d) between 10 and 15, (e) between 16 and 25, (f) between 26 and 50, (g) between 51 and 75, (h) between 76 and 100 and (i) 101 or more convictions, who were convicted in each of the last three years but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence can be viewed in the table.



Table 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 10.39 KB)

Department for International Trade

Developing Countries: Trade Agreements

Hugh Gaffney: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the effect on the Everything But Arms Agreement of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

George Hollingbery: The Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act enables the UK to put in place a UK trade preferences scheme for developing countries. The Act also enshrines into UK law the commitment contained in the UN Sustainable Development Goals to provide duty free quota free trade access for Least Developed Countries.The UK trade preference scheme will provide the same level of access as the current EU trade preference scheme by granting duty-free, quota-free access to the 48 Least Developed Countries covered by the Everything But Arms tier.

Trade Agreements

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when he plans to publish the text of the continuity agreements with (a) Chile and (b) the Eastern and Southern Africa group; and what the process will be for the (i) debate and (ii) ratification of those agreements.

George Hollingbery: The Government laid in Parliament continuity agreements with Chile and Eastern and Southern Africa states on 6 February 2019 with an accompanying explanatory memorandum for each as part of the UK’s established treaty ratification process – as set out in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. These agreements will be ratified by this process as they are now. These are not new free trade agreements with countries that the UK is not already party to by virtue of our EU membership. The Government also published a report to explain any significant changes to the trade-related provisions made. These documents are available on GOV.UK.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the agreement in principle with the Government of Israel to roll over the EU-Israel Free Trade Agreement, what specific territory that agreement applies to.

George Hollingbery: The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel. We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.

Cannabis: Exports

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government has offered any financial support to companies involved in the exporting of cannabis for medicinal purposes since 2010.

Graham Stuart: No. The Government has not offered financial support to companies involved in the exporting of licensed cannabis-based medicines since 2010.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if he will place in the Library a copy of the draft UK-Israel agreement that has been agreed in principle for trading arrangements after the UK leaves the EU.

George Hollingbery: The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel. We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the trade deal agreed in principle between the UK and Israel for trade after the UK leaves the EU announced on 23 January 2019 will continue to distinguish in relevant dealings between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.

George Hollingbery: The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel. We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the new UK-Israel agreement-in-principle contains a territorial clause limiting its application to within Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders.

George Hollingbery: The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel. We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how his Department defines the territorial scope of pre-existing agreements between the UK and Israel.

George Hollingbery: The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel. We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Help to Buy Scheme

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the levels of non-payment of Help to Buy equity loans repayments by recipients for whom interest on their loans is now payable in the latest period for which figures are available.

James Brokenshire: Homes England administers Help to Buy Equity Loan and processes are in place to collect the interest fee payments that fall due. In the vast majority of cases, Homes England is recovering the fees as expected.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answers of 24 January 2019 to Question 210599 and 04 February 2019 to Question 214122, whether his Department has informed building owners of the categorisation of the non-aluminium composite material cladding samples that they submitted to the Building Research Establishment for testing.

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2019 to Question 210599 and the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214122, whether his Department has established the European fire classification of each of the 1,421 non-aluminium composite material cladding samples submitted to the Building Research Establishment for testing.

Kit Malthouse: The Department’s screening test program for Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) was designed to be used on small samples taken from existing buildings to differentiate between the different types of filler material used in ACM cladding using their calorific value. Those who sent in non-ACM samples were informed that, as they were not ACM samples, these samples would not be subject to the screening test. It is not possible to formally classify samples in accordance with the European fire classification system using this procedure.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214559 on Buildings: Insulation, what assessment was carried out by his Department's Independent Expert Advisory Panel to conclude that the BS 8414 is a robust test; if he will publish that assessment; and if he will make a statement.

Kit Malthouse: Members of the independent expert advisory panel witnessed a series of BS 8414 fire tests commissioned by my department and had full access to the Building Research Establishment’s fire test reports for each of the tests. As such they were able to consider the nature of the test and decide whether it provided the necessary information before issuing detailed advice on cladding systems.

Buildings: Insulation

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214559 on Buildings: Insulation, whether the BS 8414 test methodology has changed since the Grenfell Tower fire.

Kit Malthouse: The current edition of BS 8414 is published in two parts, both were published in 2015. They were subsequently amended on 23 June 2017. This amendment updated the bibliography and did not change the test methodology.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Training

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2018 to Question 168121 on Armed Forces: Training, what account his Department takes of the human rights records of those countries prior to engaging in training those countries' armed forces.

Mark Lancaster: The Government applies its Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) human rights guidance to ensure that assistance offered to international partners meets its human rights obligations and values. Defence personnel consider the OSJA guidance for all new assistance proposals and extensions to existing assistance activity, and where a substantial change in circumstances has significantly altered the risk for existing assistance. The guidance is therefore considered in any country where assistance is planned. Authority for activity underpinned by OSJA assessments is made at different levels according to the risk, from personnel in-country to Ministers in Departments of State.

Army: Recruitment

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people have been recruited to the Army in each year from 2010 to 2018.

Mark Lancaster: Information on the number of people who have been recruited into the Army each year is published on the Gov.uk website.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018Intake for 2010 to 2012 are available in the United Kingdom Defence Statistics 2012.https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140116145007/http:/www.dasa.mod.uk/publications/UK-defence-statistics-compendium/2012/chapter-2-personnel/2012-chapter-2-personnel.pdf

HMS Mersey: English Channel

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214009 on HMS Mersey: English Channel, if he will publish the correspondence sent by the Home Office on 3 January 2019.

Mark Lancaster: It would not be appropriate to release this information as it would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness and security of the Armed Forces that are engaged in securing the UK border and protecting human life.

Veterans: Females

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what gender-specific support on (a) employment and (b) mental health women service personnel receive when leaving the armed forces.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: No gender-specific support on employment or mental health is provided to female Service personnel when they are leaving the Armed Forces.

Tornado Aircraft

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has for the Tornado aircraft after they are retired.

Stuart Andrew: The majority of the Tornado fleet has already been dismantled and the remaining aircraft have been or are in the process of being transferred for use as gate guardians to commemorate the aircraft's distinguished service, for training purposes or as gifts to museums to inspire future generations of RAF personnel. A small number of Tornados will be disposed of after the aircraft's retirement from RAF service.

Navy: Indo-Pacific Region

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to maintain a permanent naval presence in (a) the Indo-Pacific region and (b) South East Asia.

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to create a permanent forward presence for naval facilities in South East Asia.

Gavin Williamson: The Royal Navy plays a crucial role in the projection of UK global influence, upholding the Rules Based International System which delivers protection, peace and security for all and countering international threats to the UK, its interests and our overseas territories. Our global network of operational assets and logistic support bases enables the UK to play a leading role in delivering international security. As such, we have a duty to constantly review our operational lay down and improve the methods by which we deliver these effects and to ensure that the UK is always best placed and prepared to continue our commitments to global security.

Armed Forces: Joint Exercises

Nia Griffith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the (a) countries with which UK armed forces will carry out joint exercises in 2019, (b) dates of those exercises and (c) nature of those exercises.

Mark Lancaster: The UK Armed Forces routinely participate in international defence exercises with allies and partners across the globe. In 2019 the UK is currently planned to take part in 23 joint exercises involving over 28 countries. International defence exercises vary significantly in scale, complexity and the number of contributing nations, but all are focused upon developing interoperability with our allies and partners. The exercises involve a mix of live, synthetic and table top activity. At the cornerstone of our exercise programme are NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Partner Nations and the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) alliance between the UK and France. Discrete bilateral defence activity with nations outside of these alliances also make up part of the international programme and support wider Defence Engagement. Major NATO exercise activity in 2019 centres on development of the NATO Response Force and the ability of contributing nations to respond quickly to an international crisis. Exercises will take place in the US and across Europe in Land, Maritime and Air domains. Most notably, ARRCADE FUSION in November 2019 will test the ability of the UK led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps to provide a Corps warfighting headquarters for the Alliance. This will be the first time this capability will be held at readiness for NATO. An annual Baltic Operations Exercise focuses on the ability of NATO forces to work collectively in the protection of nations across the Baltic region. It routinely involves over 5,000 personnel from 17 nations and includes participation by up to 40 warships and submarines and over 60 aircraft. In 2019 the UK will be contributing an Amphibious Task Group based on HMS ALBION supported by aviation and Royal Marines. The JEF, for which the UK is the framework nation, also exercises throughout the year to develop the ability of partner nations to respond rapidly and work together. Exercise JOINT WARRIOR is the annual major exercise which involves more than 10,000 personnel from seven partner nations and other allies, the next is scheduled for April 2019. The UK and French CJEF will conduct two major exercises in the 2019 period, in March, and in November. In addition to the major defence international partnerships, significant bilateral exercise activity is also planned over this period. Joint training with the US makes up a significant proportion of the exercise programme and includes Aircraft Carrier, Fighter Jet and land forces exercises. Further detailed information on bilateral and multilateral exercises, can only be released after consultation with relevant allies and partners, to avoid damaging security, bilateral relationships or strategic messaging plans.

NATO

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the Government's (a) aims and (b) objectives will be at the 70 Anniversary Meeting of NATO in April 2019.

Mark Lancaster: NATO Foreign Ministers will meet in Washington DC to commemorate NATO's 70th anniversary and to drive forward progress since the July 2018 NATO Summit. The Government's objectives will be to underscore the position of NATO at the cornerstone of UK and Euro-Atlantic defence and security, and to support NATO's continuing adaptation to meet the complicated and evolving threat environment.

Hyde Park Barracks

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on the assessment study on the future of Hyde Park Barracks, as part of the Defence Estate Optimisation programme.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Ministry of Defence is investigating how best to deliver State Ceremonial and Public Duties in London. The Assessment study is currently under review to determine the best way forward. No decisions have yet been taken.

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of their annual recruitment target for regular personnel in 2018-19 has so far been achieved by (a) the Royal Navy, (b) the Army, (c) the Royal Air Force and (d) the Royal Marines.

Mark Lancaster: The recruitment figures for financial year (FY) 2018-19 up to 1 October 2018 have been published and can be found at Excel Table 4A of the UK Armed Forces Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018. Updated official statistics for performance as of 1 January 2019 will be published on 21 February 2019. The percentage of recruitment achieved against FY 2018-19 targets up to 1 October 2018 is: FY 2018-19 (to 1 October 2018)Royal Navy – Officers66%Royal Navy – Other Ranks38%Army – Officers77%Army – Other Ranks27%Royal Air Force – Officers85%Royal Air Force – Other Ranks71%Royal Marines – Officers100%Royal Marines – Other Ranks27%The Ministry of Defence remains committed to maintaining the overall size of the Armed Forces and we have a range of measures under way to improve recruitment and retention. The challenge is kept under constant review.Importantly the Services continue to meet all their current commitments, keeping the country and its interests safe.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the cost to her Department is of taking a single (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment support allowance and (c) universal credit decision through mandatory reconsideration.

Sarah Newton: This information is not available.

UN Convention On the Rights of Persons With Disabilities

James Frith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Government's timescale is for (a) acknowledging the concluding observations from the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and (b) responding to that convention's recommendations.

Sarah Newton: The Government is committed to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to the progressive realisation of the rights for disabled people that it sets out. We have provided our first report to the UN Committee as requested. We published this report on 6 September 2018. This report and accompanying ministerial letter setting out the UK's progress are available on GOV.UK website:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disabled-peoples-rights-information-following-the-uks-first-periodic-review I tabled a Written Statement (HCWS938) on 6 September 2018, providing an update on the UK’s follow-up response to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-06/HCWS938 We will be responding to the recommendations in the Concluding Observations during our next periodic review, currently scheduled for 2023. In the meantime, we will be preparing in due course, as recommended by the UN Committee, a progress update on the 2016 inquiry recommendations.

Department for Work and Pensions: Employment Tribunals Service

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times her Department, excluding executive agencies and non-ministerial Departments, was taken to an employment tribunal for disability discrimination in 2017-18.

Justin Tomlinson: 2017-18 DWP figures (excluding executive agencies and non-Ministerial Departments) for cases lodged with an Employment Tribunal, which include an element of disability discrimination, are as follows: cases withdrawn -12; cases dismissed or struck out - 8; cases settled - 21; cases won, having progressed to a full hearing - 6; cases lost having progressed to a full hearing - 9; cases as yet unresolved -18.

Department for Work and Pensions: Universal Credit

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) work coaches and (b) Jobcentre Plus staff are (i) in receipt of Universal Credit and (ii) have been subject to in-work conditionality.

Alok Sharma: I refer the hon. Member to my reply to Question 213242 on 31 January 2019.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Ged Killen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214627 on State Retirement Pensions: Females, whether she plans to instruct her Department to re-open complaints relating to the equalisation of the state pension age in the event that (a) the matter is no longer the subject of legal proceedings and (b) there has been no legal determination on the issues which form the basis of the complaint to the Independent Case Examiner as set out in that Answer.

Guy Opperman: The Independent Case Examiner closed all live complaints concerning changes to women’s State Pension age when they became subject to legal proceedings, as is required under its governance contract. In the event the legal proceedings fall away or there is no determination on the matters which forms the basis of this group of complaint, the Independent Case Examiner could consider reopening the cases at the request of the Department.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 208914 on Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations, what her Department’s definition is of prescriptive.

Sarah Newton: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to track outcomes for the Youth Obligation; and whether that tracking will be backdated to the launch of that programme.

Alok Sharma: We are clerically collecting Management Information on outcomes of programme participants from January 2019 onwards. This is the first month in which we will have fully rolled out the programme across the entire country. The data capture will include what provision a participant has been referred to and their attendance on different elements of the programme. We will have the ability, via the use of the RTI information that we hold, to look at whether individuals go into work and how much they earn. We have no plans to backdate this data capture to the start of the Youth Obligation Support Programme.

Independent Case Examiner

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's target timetable is for deciding whether complaints to the Independent Case Examiner will be accepted for investigation; what (a) proportion and (b) number of complaints met that target in each year for which information is available; and how many complaints are currently awaiting a decision on whether or not they will be investigated.

Justin Tomlinson: Funding for the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office is reviewed on an annual basis. In the current financial year, the ICE Office has received funding for thirteen additional posts. Productivity in the ICE Office has increased by 34% in the current reporting year, with the Office having cleared 1,047 cased by the end of January 2019, compared with 782 in the same period during 2017/18.The Office has an internal target to inform 90% of complainants within four weeks of its reciept, whether thier complaint can be accepted for investigation. The Office can only accept a complaint for investigation once it has (a) established that the complainant has exhausted the relevant business complaints process, and (b) reached agreement with the complainant regarding the scope of any investigation. The table below provides the available performance data. YearNumber of complaints receivedNumber of complaints not accepted for investigationNumber of complaints accepted for investigation2017/185,8862,247 (81% within internal target of four weeks)3,639 (38% within internal target of four weeks)2018/19 (1st April 2018 to 6th February 2019)4,1692,928 (68% within internal target of four weeks)1,073 (47% within internal target of four weeks) As at 6th February 2019, there were 168 complainants awaiting a decision on whether their complaint could be accepted for examination. During the period covered by this response the Independent Case Examiner’s Office received 4,118 complaints from women concerning changes to State Pension age, which directly impacted on its ability to meet its internal target for determining whether a complaint can be accepted for examination.

Personal Independence Payment

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 212675 on Personal Independence Payment, for what reason the treatment of dialysis whilst in a hospital is not classified as therapy in relation to personal independence payment.

Sarah Newton: The Personal Independence Payment Activity 3, which relates to managing therapy including dialysis, assesses a persons need for supervision, prompting and assistance in managing their therapy at home. Therapy provided at hospital is managed by the NHS and whilst PIP sits alongside the support provided by the NHS it is not intended to duplicate that support.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 213887 on Jobseeker's Allowance: Disqualification, whether it is her Department’s policy to sanction claimants of universal credit who decline to accept a job with a zero hours contract; and if she will make a statement.

Alok Sharma: Zero-hour contracts can provide a pathway to employment for people who don’t want to be committed to working a set number of hours a week, for example those with caring responsibilities. Universal Credit payments adjust to earnings and hours making a zero-hour contracts, part-time or temporary jobs a viable step towards long-term employment.Universal Credit claimants who are subject to work related requirements can be expected to accept a job with a zero-hours contract if it is considered suitable for their individual circumstances. A claimant may be sanctioned if they fail to do so without good reason.Sanctions are only used in a small percentage of cases, and that is when people fail to meet their agreed commitments without good reason. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good cause, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.

Social Security Benefits: Neurology

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who have a neurological condition applying for assessment for (a) personal independence payment and (b) employment and support allowance who are assessed by an appropriate health care professional for that neurological condition in each year for which information is available.

Sarah Newton: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Security Benefits: Neurology

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions (a) she, (b) Ministers and (c) officials of her Department have had with charities and third sector bodies on the overall competence and expertise of health care professionals who assess people with neurological conditions for (i) personal independence payment and (ii) employment and support allowance.

Sarah Newton: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Pension Credit

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2019 to Question 212389, what estimate she has made of the number of couples affected in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22 of the changes to be introduced in May 2019 to the eligibility for pension credit of couples where one partner has reached state pension age and the other has not.

Guy Opperman: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Employment and Support Allowance: Suicide

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to NHS Digital's Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014, what assessment she has made of the factors contributing to attempted suicide rates of employment and support allowance claimants relative to the non-claimant population.

Sarah Newton: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Security Benefits

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times her Department has received information on the activities of benefit claimants from territorial police forces in each of the last eight years.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to reducing both fraud and error and considers all referrals of suspected benefit fraud. Information is received from a variety of different sources, including members of the public, local authorities, members of staff, data matching and the police. There is no mandatory requirement for any police force within the United Kingdom to make referrals of suspected benefit fraud to DWP. Where information is received, DWP will check to see if there are grounds for further investigation, as with any potential benefit fraud allegation. The table below shows the total volume of referrals received from 2010/11 – 2017/18 where the referral source is noted as ‘police’. Year2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/152015/162016/172017/18Police referrals to DWP2,2001,9002,3002,6002,3003,5003,5003,500 *All figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Dr Paul Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 214641 on Personal Independence Payment: Appeals, what estimate she has made of the clearance times for mandatory reconsiderations for personal independence payments (a) nationally and (b) in the North East of England in (i) November 2018, (ii) December 2018 and (iii) January 2019.

Sarah Newton: Data on clearance times for mandatory reconsiderations for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is currently available up to October 2018 as provided in the response to Question 214641 on 4 February 2019. Information for the period November 2018 to January 2019 will be available once the data processing and quality assurance is complete for the next release of the PIP Official Statistics on 19 March 2019. Until then the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Social Media

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money his Department has spent on (a) Facebook and (b) Instagram advertising in each of the past five years.

George Eustice: Digital advertising is a cost-effective way for the government to recruit nurses, promote blood donations, find out about pensions and all the other important information the public needs to be aware of.The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has spent £14,955.67 on Facebook and £63,865.00 on Instagram promoted activity since 2014.The figures set out in the table below do not include any recruitment promotion as there is no record held centrally. If we were to provide this data, it would involve working with 24 recruitment leads across Defra, therefore could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, the table does include the following promotions:Summer of Great British Food (2016)Great British Food (2017)25 Year Environment Plan & Future Farming consultation (2018)The majority of the communications advertising spend was on promoting British food through the Department’s Food is GREAT Instagram channel.YearFacebookInstagram2014£0£02015£0£02016£0£8000.002017£0£43,685.002018£14,955.67£12,000Total£14,955.67£63,685.00

Fisheries

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he first became aware that UK fishers have been harvesting immature welks under the minimum landing size; and if will he make a statement.

George Eustice: Most whelks in the UK are found in our inshore fisheries and as such many are subject to local controls as well as national or EU restrictions. The Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) have powers in place to enforce the minimum conservation reference size for whelks. Where an offence is discovered the relevant IFCA would deal with this in line with their published compliance and enforcement strategy, which allows for a range of sanctions aimed at seeking better compliance.

Fisheries

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of 29 January 2019, Official Report, column 9, on what date his Department plans to lay before Parliament a draft Statutory Instrument to ban electro-pulse beam fishing.

George Eustice: The draft Statutory Instrument containing the pulse beam trawling amendments, The Common Fisheries Policy and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, is due to be laid on 12 February. The relevant amendments are in Part 3, Amendments of the Technical Conservation Regulations.

Livestock: Diseases

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to provide a support package for farmers in the event of an livestock disease outbreak.

George Eustice: Defra engages closely with farmers and animal keepers to help prevent exotic disease outbreaks and if they do arise we work closely with them and their industry bodies to tackle the outbreaks quickly and effectively. Defra’s longstanding practice is that: farmers receive compensation for any healthy animals culled to control the spread of exotic animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease or swine fever; farmers do not receive any compensation for animals that die before they are culled or are not culled as part of official controls; farmers are not compensated for consequential losses (e.g. the income that the animal would have generated in the future, for example through laying eggs or producing offspring).

Animal Feed: Methane

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will consider undertaking research into animal feeds to reduce methane emissions.

George Eustice: Defra has funded research to consider the impacts of livestock feed management on productivity, welfare and the environment. Much of the work has been undertaken in collaborative projects with industry leading to better products and practices in the sector. This includes work to breed sustainable UK produced alternatives to imported soya protein, development of more beneficial high sugar grass varieties, breeding work to improve feed conversion efficiency in livestock, and research on lower protein diets for dairy animals that maintain yield and welfare.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Compensation

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the relative importance of (a) open market and (b) private sale values of pedigree cattle in the determination of compensation for bovine TB.

George Eustice: A vast amount of sales data (for around 1.4 million cattle) is collected through the year from open market sales and used to determine the monthly TB compensation rates in England. Under Defra’s table valuation based system, compensation paid reflects the average market sale prices in the 51 cattle categories we use. The categories are based on an animal’s age, gender, type (beef or dairy) and pedigree status. Only sales data for pedigree cattle is used to determine compensation rates for owners of pedigree herds. We do not have access to private sales valuation data.

Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to reduce the number of cattle destroyed as a result of false positive Gamma blood tests.

George Eustice: The interferon-gamma test is a supplementary blood test that has been used alongside the primary tuberculin skin test in Great Britain since 2006 in order to maximise the detection of TB-infected animals in certain herds affected by TB breakdowns.No diagnostic test is perfectly accurate and there is a trade-off between the sensitivity and specificity of a test. The interferon-gamma test is more sensitive than the skin test, which means it is less likely to miss TB-infected animals (approximately 1 in 10 infected animals compared with 1 in 4 for the skin test). However, it is less specific than the skin test (on average 3-4 false positives per 100 disease-free animals tested). Even so, it is incorrect to assume that all interferon-gamma positive animals with no visible lesions of TB at slaughter represent false positive results.That is why the interferon-gamma test is, with few exceptions, only used in fully confirmed (lesion and/or culture positive) TB breakdown herds. In such herds the predictive value of a positive interferon-gamma test result is maximised and the cost of taking out low numbers of false positive animals is outweighed by the benefit of earlier and more complete detection of all TB-infected animals in the herd. This in turn reduces the risks of repeat (recurrent) TB breakdowns in the same herd and spreading the disease to other herds as a result of the incomplete elimination of all the infected animals.In 2018/2019, over £4 million has been allocated to Defra’s bovine TB research and development programme, which includes research on improved and novel diagnostic tests for bovine TB.

Cattle: Sales

Dr Andrew Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of pedigree cows traded (a) on the open market and (b) privately.

George Eustice: The Government does not collect information on the number of pedigree cows traded on either the open market or privately.

Agriculture: Subsidies

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has received representations raising concerns on the matter of hon. Members receiving agricultural payments whilst participating in parliamentary proceedings under the Agriculture Bill.

George Eustice: We value the views of all honourable Members as the Agriculture Bill is scrutinised in Parliament. It is the Parliamentary Registrar of Members' Interests’ responsibility to regulate outside interests and ensure they are transparent.

Home Office

Undocumented Migrants: Deportation

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department carried out any equality impact assessments prior to setting his Department's targets for the removal of illegal immigrants; and if he will publish any such assessments.

Caroline Nokes: The Department does not hold any Equality Impact Assessments related to the setting of targets for removals of illegal migrants. This is because the Equalities Act 2010 does not require public authorities to carry out such assessments. http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06591/SN06591.pdf.Ministers have not set specific targets for the enforced removal of illegal immigrants in 2018 – 19.The Department has published information on the performance management regime for enforced removals. This is set out is set out in Sir Philip Rutnam’s letters of 14 May and 25 June 2018 to Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Chair, Home Affairs Select Committee:https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/home-affairs/Correspondence-17-19/180514-Home-Office-Permanent-Secretary-Immigration-Enforcement.pdf (14 May)andhttps://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/home-affairs/Correspondence-17-19/180625_Permanent_Secretary_Immigration%20Enforcement.pdf (25 June)

Female Genital Mutilation: Crime Prevention

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of taking preventative action in relation to an at-risk individual being subjected to FGM.

Victoria Atkins: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. The Government is clear that we will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong suffering to women and girlsThe Government has significantly strengthened the law in 2015 to improve protection for victims and those at risk, and to break down the barriers to prosecution.Work to tackle FGM is an integral part of our cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, published in March 2016. The Strategy commits to continue to challenge deep-rooted social norms, attitudes and behaviours that discriminate against and limit women and girls across all communities. As part of our commitment to tackling all forms of VAWG, we have pledged £100 million in funding, including the £17 million VAWG transformation fund. This year, we will refresh the strategy to ensure that we are doing all that we can to tackle crimes which disproportionately affect women.The Home Office does not hold information on the cost of taking preventative action to those at risk of FGM. However, we are committed to continuing our work to protect and support victims and those at risk of this terrible crime.

Modern Slavery Act 2015 Independent Review

Gareth Snell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to respond to the recommendations of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 Review: Second Interim Report, published on 22 January 2019, and whether he intends to accept the findings in the report.

Victoria Atkins: The Home Office will formally respond to the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act, following submission of its final report and recommendations to the Home Secretary by the end of March 2019.

Offences against Children: Internet

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the scale of child sexual abuse images online.

Victoria Atkins: We have already made significant progress in combating online child sex abuse and exploitation, but it’s clear that we have much, much more to do.The WePROTECT Global Alliance Global Threat Assessment 2018 highlighted that the scale, complexity and danger of the online child sexual abuse threat has increased over the past three years. This has been facilitated through the ubiquity of mobile devices, anonymous access and encryption.In 2017, 82,109 individual industry referrals were received by the National Crime Agency (NCA), from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a 700% increase since 2013.The Government has invested £7.5m in a ground-breaking Centre of Expertise to identify, generate, and share high-quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.The Centre published a revised assessment of the scale and nature of child sexual abuse in August 2018, which highlighted that online is a new context for child sexual abuse and exploitation and is generating new forms of abuse which are difficult to track accurately. Measuring the scale of abuse in the UK will be an ongoing priority for the Centre.

Offences against Children: Internet

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department plans to take to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material online.

Victoria Atkins: Child sexual abuse has been declared a national threat, and the Govern-ment is investing millions of pounds to enable officers to actively seek out and bring offenders to justice.We have announced a £40m package of measures to protect children and young people from sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, and to crack down on offenders. This includes a significant increase in resources to the National Crime Agency, leading to a near doubling of the CEOP Command's investigative capability.In the Home Secretary’s speech on online child sexual abuse at the NSPCC on 3 September, he announced that the Home Office will be investing an extra £21 million over the following 18 months to bolster the response of our law enforcement agencies to these types of crimes.This money will be used to improve how our agencies reduce the volume of offending and pursue the most dangerous and prolific offenders.He also announced a further £2.6 million to collaborate with child protection organisations to improve our understanding of offender behaviour and prevent future offending. This includes support to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation which aims to change the behaviour of offenders and potential offenders by highlighting the harm and suffering that takes place behind every image.We have also made £250,000 available to support new ideas on how to de-tect and disrupt the live-streaming of abuse.Furthermore, in November the Home Secretary co-hosted the Microsoft-led Hackathon in America, where he met with leading industry stakeholders to identify robust ways to tackle and prevent child sexual abuse on the internet. A prototype tool was developed at the Hackathon that can be used to automatically flag potential conversations taking place between online groomers and children, which will be licensed free of charge to technology companies worldwide.We have already committed to legislate and will set out our plans in the forthcoming Online Harms White Paper. The White Paper will set out new laws to tackle the full range of online harms and set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.

Internet Watch Foundation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Internet Watch Foundation in removing child sexual abuse material from the internet in 2018.

Victoria Atkins: The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has had significant success in reducing the amount of child sexual abuse material hosted in the UK. Since 2014, the IWF has proactively searched for and removed illegal imagery of children. As a result of IWF’s work to flag material to companies for removal, its most recent annual report (for 2017) states that less than 1% of child sexual abuse imagery continues to be hosted in the UK, down from 18% in 1996 when IWF was first set up.IWF’s latest statistics, published in January, show that more than 100,000 webpages showing the sexual abuse and sexual torture of children have been removed from the internet thanks to the IWF in 2018 – up by one third on the year before. In 2018, 4 out of 10 of the webpages the IWF actioned for removal displayed the sexual abuse of children aged 10 years old and younger, with infants and babies featuring more than 1,300 times.The IWF has been at the centre of work providing industry with hashes — digital fingerprints - of known abuse images which originate from UK law enforcement's Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). So far, thousands of hashes have been shared leading to webpages containing child sexual abuse imagery being blocked or removed.

Loans: Mozambique

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January to Question 210062 on Loans: Mozambique, whether UK authorities plan to take action under the 2010 Bribery Act in relation to the allegations of K-based banks role in the $2 billion of loans to three state-owned companies in Mozambique.

Mr Ben Wallace: As stated in the Answer of 28 January to Question 210062, the relevant UK authorities have considered the allegations against UK-based banks for undisclosed loans to three state owned enterprises in Mozambique and have offered assistance to Mozambique in relation to their investigations.Any action to be taken pursuant to investigations, including under the 2010 Bribery Act, will be a matter for law enforcement authorities. The Government does not comment on law enforcement action for live investigations.

Letting Agents

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) tenants and (b) potential tenants of steps taken by letting agents to establish the right to rent.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office carried out an evaluation of phase one of the Right to Rent scheme in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton in 2015, published at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-right-to-rent-scheme

Home Office: Employment Tribunals Service

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times his Department, excluding executive agencies and non-ministerial departments, was taken to an employment tribunal for disability discrimination in 2017-18.

Victoria Atkins: For the year 2017-18, the Home Office was involved in 20 Employment Tribunals where disability discrimination was an aspect of the claim.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who has responsibility for assisting EU citizens with reduced capacity complete their applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has provided to local authorities to help them assist vulnerable EU citizens complete their applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office is putting in place measures to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is streamlined, user-friendly and accessible to all prospective applicants. That is why we are working in partnership with vulnerable group representatives, Local Authorities and other experts to identify user needs and provide the needed support.Since Spring 2018, Local Authorities and Devolved Administration officials have attended regular discussion forums with the Home Office. From Summer 2018, we started a series of regular teleconferences to LAs; 190 have participated so far with participants highlighting the usefulness of information and guidance provided.The Home Office is committed to supporting vulnerable EU citizens to obtain UK immigration status and we will continue to engage with representative groups to ensure the needs of vulnerable citizens are taken into account.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons the EU Exit: ID Document Check app does not work on a desktop or laptop computer.

Caroline Nokes: EU citizens make a huge contribution to our economy and society, and we want them to stay. The EU Settlement Scheme is a streamlined and user-friendly service which is accessible on any smartphone, tablet or computer using an internet browser.The ‘EU Exit: Identity Document Check’ app – which allows applicants to prove their identity remotely, without sending in their passport or national identity card – requires access to the chip in the applicant’s identity document in order to verify their identity remotely. The app uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to facilitate a secure connection between the app and the chip in the applicants Identity Document. NFC functionality is now available in the vast majority of modern smartphone devices due to the popularity of contactless payments which utilises the same core technology. NFC is a rare feature for tablets and not available on the majority of laptops and desktops.During this test phase, applicants need to prove their identity by using the ‘EU Exit: Identity Document Check’ app, currently only available only on Android phones. The rest of their application can be completed on any computer or mobile device. This is an entirely voluntary test phase and once the system is fully open by 30 March, the app will be optional. There will be over 50 locations across the UK where applicants can have their identity document scanned. Applicants will also be able to post identity documents to the Home Office to be checked and returned quickly.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has issued to people applying under EU Settled Status Scheme who have resided in the UK for more than five years but would only qualify as EU national for less than five years.

Caroline Nokes: The requirements for continuous residence under the EU Settlement Scheme are set out in Appendix EU of the immigration rules and in published caseworker guidance available on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-caseworker-guidance.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has issued to people applying for EU Settled Status who are not computer literate.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Office is putting in place measures to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is streamlined, user-friendly and accessible to all prospective applicants. There will be a broad range of support in place. These include offering assisted digital support for those who cannot access or are not confident with technology, and the Settlement Resolution Centre which will be able to assist with questions relating to the application process.We currently have 13 locations where applicants can have their ID document scanned, if they choose to do so. Once the scheme is fully open, by 30 March 2019, there will be over 50 locations across the UK where applicants can have their identity document scanned. Applicants will also be able to post identity documents to the Home Office to be checked and returned quickly.The Home Office is committed to supporting EU citizens to obtain UK immigration status and we will continue to engage with representative groups to ensure that their needs are taken into account.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether EU nationals that have resided in the UK for (a) under and (b) over 10 years will be able to travel outside of the UK on a two week vacation without that affecting their (i) right to return and (ii) other legal rights to reside in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

Caroline Nokes: EU citizens’ rights to return to, and reside in, the UK after a two week vacation will not be affected if they were lawfully resident before leaving the UK, regardless of how long they have lived in the UK.

Deportation: Caribbean

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the decision was taken to restart deportation charter flights to the Caribbean; and if he will make a statement.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many residents of Hornsey & Wood Green constituency have been scheduled for deportation on the restarted deportation charter flights to the Caribbean.

Caroline Nokes: We do not provide operational details of the returns charter flight programme.To confirm or deny details of those who are scheduled on the returns charter flight to Jamaica would amount to processing of their personal data and would be unlawful under data protection legislation.Those scheduled to be on the flight are Foreign National Offenders without a right to remain in the UK. The UK Borders Act 2007 requires that the Home Secretary issues a deportation order for anyone who is a foreign national offender. That is a legal requirement.

Undocumented Migrants: Arrests

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were arrested on immigration offences and later reclassified as potential victims of modern slavery in (a) 2014, (b) 2015, (c) 2016, (d) 2017 and (e) 2018.

Caroline Nokes: The information requested is not held in a reportable format.Statistics available on the National Crime Agency website provides break-downs for the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) by referral agency. Volumes for referrals for Immigration Enforcement (IE) and UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) by year to the NRM are as follows: 2014 - 937 (IE/UKVI combined), 2015 - 1518 (IE/UKVI combined), 2016 374, 2017 – 124, and 2018 – 338

Immigration: EU Nationals

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Settled Status App requests applicants to provide proof of residence for six months for the year 2019.

Caroline Nokes: EU citizens make a huge contribution to our economy and society, and we want them to stay. The EU Settlement Scheme enables them to do so.The scheme opened on a trial basis at the end of August and the second phase of live testing ended on 21 December. In light of the positive progress, we commenced the wider public test of the scheme on 21 January.The beta test phases have provided us with a useful opportunity to prove various elements of the scheme functionality and processes, and we will continue to improve the system before the scheme fully opens by 30 March. The issue you mentioned has been fixed as part of this process.

Police: Stun Guns

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of police officers that are trained to use a taser in each police force.

Mr Nick Hurd: All armed officers are required to be Taser trained and carry the device. As at 31 March 2018, there were 6,459 armed officers in England and Wales.Unarmed officers can also carry the device if they have completed special Taser training. However, the number of specially trained Taser officers is an operational matter for chief officers to determine based on their assessment of threat and risk. The Home Office does not hold information on the number of unarmed officers who have been trained.

Deportation: Charter Flights

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will (a) stay the imminent deportation charter flight to Jamaica and (b) cancel all such flights pending the completion of an independent review of (i) the effect on black and minority ethnic communities of his Department’s immigration policy and practice and (ii) how that policy and practice might be reformed to improve fairness and efficiency.

Caroline Nokes: I can confirm that the returns charter flight to Jamaica took place on 6 February 2019. I do not plan to cancel any other returns charter flights.Returns charter flight operations remain an important means by which we return illegal migrants and Foreign National Offenders without a right to remain in the UK. They would otherwise have to be returned alongside fare paying passengers on scheduled flights.The UK Borders Act 2007 requires that the Home Secretary issues a deporta-tion order for anyone who is a foreign national offender sentenced to a period of 12 months or more imprisonment. That is a legal requirement. Most liberal democracies around the world have similar laws in place. British offenders in foreign states are often deported back to the UK, including from Jamaica, which has in the past deported British nationals who have committed serious offences back to the UK.Everyone deported on the returns charter flight to Jamaica was a foreign national offender. All of them have been convicted of serious crimes, such as rape, murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking. This law applies universally to all foreign national offenders.

Deportation: English Language

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 213885, Deportation: English Language, how many (a) refusal, (b) curtailment and (c) removal decisions have been made in respect of ETS-linked cases to date.

Caroline Nokes: UKVI transparency data provides details of refusal, curtailments and removal decisions in response to the abuse of secure English language testingA link to the most recent available data is provided here;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2017The table in SELT_02 is the closest match to the information requested.The data was last published in February 2017 and only contains data to the last quarter (December 2016). ETS data is no longer published after this date.

Deportation: English Language

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2019 to Question 213885, Deportation: English Language, how many (a) removals and (b) departures there have been in respect of ETS-linked cases to date.

Caroline Nokes: UKVI transparency data provides details of refusal, curtailments and removal decisions in response to the abuse of secure English language testingA link to the most recent available data is provided here;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2017The table in SELT_02 is the closest match to the information requestedThe data was last published in February 2017 and only contains data to the last quarter (December 2016). ETS data is no longer published after this date.

Road Traffic Offences: Fixed Penalties

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of penalty notices issued in the last 12 months as a result of images taken by cameras across the country have been challenged by drivers on the grounds that (a) the vehicle was not theirs and (b) the registration number had been read incorrectly.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Home Office does not hold this information. The enforcement of motoring offences is an operational matter for the police.

Borders: Northern Ireland

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on proposals made by Border Force on technological solutions to monitor the movement of people across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after the UK leaves the EU.

Caroline Nokes: The Home Secretary confirmed that he has received advice on technological solutions for the movement of goods, but Her Majesty’s Government will not be giving further detail at this stage.The UK Government has been resolute in its commitments to Northern Ireland, and remains committed to avoiding a ‘hard border’.

Drugs: Organised Crime

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2018 to Question 199271 and paragraph 20 of the National Crime Agency’s January 2019 report entitled County lines drug supply, Vulnerability and Harm 2018, whether he plans to gather information about children under 10 years of age involved in county lines.

Victoria Atkins: A key purpose of the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) is to develop the national intelligence picture in relation to the threat from county lines. In addition, in November 2018 the Director General of the National Crime Agency formally tasked all Chief Constables under the Crime and Courts Act 2013, to direct all forces to implement a more consistent and prioritised intelligence and operational response in respect of county lines drugs supply, to include the submission of intelligence to the NCLCC and a prioritised response to high-risk lines and gangs.The gathering of intelligence in relation to any known county lines activity will include, if they are involved and where known, children under the age of 10.

Drugs: Organised Crime

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Drug Dealing Telecommunications Restriction Orders Regulations 2017 on preventing the growth of the county lines drug trade.

Victoria Atkins: The Government legislated to introduce Drug Dealing Telecommunications Restriction Orders (DDTROs) following a request from law enforcement to introduce this additional disruption tool for county lines drug dealing. DDTROs came into effect in December 2017 and after an initial pilot period were rolled out to all forces in February 2018.The new National County Lines Coordination Centre (NLCLCC) is responsible for supporting cross border efforts to tackle county lines and maintains oversight of the use of DDTROs. The NCLCC is responsible for providing forces with support and guidance on the use of DDTROs as part of a package of techniques to disrupt county lines perpetrators.

Drugs: Organised Crime

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent meetings his Department has had with representatives of (a) Addison Lee, (b) BlaBlaCar, (c) Gett, (d) HOPP (Taxify), (e) Kabee, (f) mytaxi and (g) other taxi, minicab and private hire vehicle companies on the county lines drug trade.

Victoria Atkins: Tackling county lines is a priority for this Government and to date we have rolled out a comprehensive package of communications and awareness raising activity with a range of key sectors, including transport partners.However, specific engagement regarding county lines has taken place with the Licensed Private Hire Car Association, Uber, the National Institute of Licensing and National Association of Licensing Enforcement Officers.In additional, materials have been shared with police forces and local authorities to disseminate to taxi companies as part of their engagement work on county lines activity.To date there has been no engagement with Addison Lee, BlaBlaCar, Gett, HOPP (Taxify), Kabee or mytaxi.

Drugs: Organised Crime

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent meetings his Department has had with representatives of (a) Abellio Greater Anglia, (b) Great Northern, (c) London Overground and (d) Network Rail on the county lines drug trade.

Victoria Atkins: Tackling county lines is a priority for this Government and to date we have rolled out a comprehensive package of communications and awareness raising activity with a range of key sectors, including transport partners.The Home Office has held discussions with Transport for London (which includes London Overground) and Network Rail regarding county lines activity on the transport network and we are encouraging them to raise awareness of the issue amongst local rail operators and staff.To date, there has been no direct engagement with Abellio Greater Anglia or Great Northern.

Missing Persons: Databases

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to introduce a national missing persons database.

Victoria Atkins: We are working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) through the Home Office National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP) to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP) which will enable us to have a snapshot of live missing incidents across police forces in England and Wales. This will assist officers when they encounter a missing person particularly if that missing person is outside their home force area.We are currently working towards the NRMP to be in use operationally in 2020/2021.

Cabinet Office

Prosperity Fund

Helen Goodman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) amount of money paid and (b) the recipients of that funding in cases where £10,000 or more has been paid from the Prosperity fund in 2018-19.

Mr David Lidington: The Cabinet Office is responsible for both the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and Prosperity Fund overall. CSSF and Prosperity Fund ODA programme spend is also detailed on Devtracker and year end ODA spend is detailed by project level via the Statistics on International Development, which is published annually in November for the previous year. The Prosperity Fund Annual Report provides details of the total spend by programme for the previous financial year. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.  Information on Prosperity Fund ODA eligible programme spend is published regularly on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-oda-fco-prosperity-fund-spend The CSSF has published programme summaries, which outline the programme’s funding allocation (split by Official Development Assistance (ODA)/non-ODA), objectives and project level activities for 2018/19 - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/conflict-stability-and-security-fund-programme-summaries#programme-summaries-2018-to-2019 The CSSF Annual Report provides details of the CSSF’s total spend and breaks down by region and thematic area. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.

Conflict, Stability and Security Fund

Helen Goodman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) amount of money contributed and (b) recipients of such funding of his Department's contributions in excess of £10,000 to (a) conflict prevention, (b) early warning (c) crisis management, (d) conflict resolution or peacemaking through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund in 2018-19.

Mr David Lidington: The Cabinet Office is responsible for both the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and Prosperity Fund overall. CSSF and Prosperity Fund ODA programme spend is also detailed on Devtracker and year end ODA spend is detailed by project level via the Statistics on International Development, which is published annually in November for the previous year. The Prosperity Fund Annual Report provides details of the total spend by programme for the previous financial year. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.  Information on Prosperity Fund ODA eligible programme spend is published regularly on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-oda-fco-prosperity-fund-spend The CSSF has published programme summaries, which outline the programme’s funding allocation (split by Official Development Assistance (ODA)/non-ODA), objectives and project level activities for 2018/19 - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/conflict-stability-and-security-fund-programme-summaries#programme-summaries-2018-to-2019 The CSSF Annual Report provides details of the CSSF’s total spend and breaks down by region and thematic area. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.

Conflict, Stability and Security Fund

Helen Goodman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) amount of money contributed and (b) recipients of each of his Department's contributions in excess of £10,000 to (a) peacekeeping, (b) peacebuilding, (c) crisis management and (d) associated strengthening of international and regional systems through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund in 2018-19.

Mr David Lidington: The Cabinet Office is responsible for both the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and Prosperity Fund overall. CSSF and Prosperity Fund ODA programme spend is also detailed on Devtracker and year end ODA spend is detailed by project level via the Statistics on International Development, which is published annually in November for the previous year. The Prosperity Fund Annual Report provides details of the total spend by programme for the previous financial year. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.  Information on Prosperity Fund ODA eligible programme spend is published regularly on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-oda-fco-prosperity-fund-spend The CSSF has published programme summaries, which outline the programme’s funding allocation (split by Official Development Assistance (ODA)/non-ODA), objectives and project level activities for 2018/19 - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/conflict-stability-and-security-fund-programme-summaries#programme-summaries-2018-to-2019 The CSSF Annual Report provides details of the CSSF’s total spend and breaks down by region and thematic area. The Annual Report for 2018/19 will be published later this year.

Skin Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many cases of skin cancer there have been in each of the last five years.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 81.61 KB)

Cancer: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many children aged 16 and under have been diagnosed with cancer in each of the last five years.

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Response
(PDF Document, 74.61 KB)

Parliament Square: Flags

Patrick Grady: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had discussions with the Greater London Authority on the raising of the European Union flag on the flag poles of Parliament Square in order for them to be ceremonially lowered on the day the UK leaves the EU.

Mr David Lidington: None. We have no plans to seek to lower the EU flag on leaving the European Union, as it is already the case that the EU flag is not flown in Westminster or Whitehall.

Recall of Parliament

Nic Dakin: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office,  what estimate he has made of the additional cost to Government Departments of the House of Commons sitting through what was originally intended to be the February recess.

Mr David Lidington: Government departments continue to work throughout the year, whether or not Parliament is in recess.

Small Businesses: Public Appointments

Jo Platt: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government press release New expert brought in to boost government’s relationship with small businesses, published in February 2019, for how many hours per week the Small Business Crown Representative is employed by the Government; and what the salary of that position is.

Oliver Dowden: The Small Business Crown Representative will be working two days a week and will be paid £500 per day, the standard rate for all Crown Representative working for the Government.

Treasury

Treasury: Staff

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether non-payroll staff working in (a) National Savings and Investments, (b) the Debt Management Office and (c) the Valuation Office Agency are included in the statutory gender pay gap reporting.

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether non-payroll staff working in (a) National Savings and Investments, (b) the Debt Management Office and (c) the Valuation Office Agency are included in the diversity statistics published in the 20017-18 annual report and accounts.

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer,  whether non-payroll staff working in (a) National Savings and Investments, (b) the Debt Management Office and (c) the Valuation Office Agency are included in the Public Sector Equality Duty Objectives 2016-20.

Robert Jenrick: Non-payroll staff working at (c) The Valuation Office Agency are expected to comply where appropriate with their organisation’s Public Sector Equality Duty Objectives 2016-20. Non-payroll staff are not included in their organisation’s Public-Sector Equality Duty Objectives 2016-20 in a) National Savings and Investments and (b) the Debt Management Office.  Non-payroll staff are not included in either the gender Pay Gap reports or in the diversity statistics published in the 2017-18 reports and accounts of (a) National Savings and Investments, (b) the Debt Management Office and (c) The Valuation Office Agency.

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

Patrick Grady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the contribution of the medicinal cannabis industry to the UK economy since 2010.

Elizabeth Truss: The Treasury has not made an estimate of the contribution of the medicinal cannabis industry to the UK economy since 2010.

Tax Evasion: Prosecutions

John McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have been initiated under sections 45 and 46 of the Financial Services Act 2017 for offences of failing to prevent tax evasion (a) in the UK and (b) abroad.

Mel Stride: The Corporate Criminal Offences, introduced by articles 45 and 46 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017, were enacted on 30 September 2017. Neither offence is retrospective in nature. The domestic offence (Article 45) is covered by the functions of HMRC. However, the overseas offence (Article 46) is covered by the functions of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and/or the National Crime Agency (NCA). HMRC currently has less than five criminal investigations into behaviours occurring since 30 September 2017 for offences under Article 45. These investigations have been commenced since November 2018 and are the first in a pipeline of cases HMRC has under development that may have Article 45 implications. Neither HMRC nor the NCA are prosecuting authorities. All prosecutions leading from their investigations have to be authorised by the relevant independent prosecuting authority, which for England and Wales would be the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); for Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS); and for Northern Ireland (NI), the Public Prosecution Service for NI, (PPSNI).

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Costs

Dame Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish his review of the costs of High Speed Two.

Elizabeth Truss: Government remains committed to delivering the HS2 programme in the most cost-efficient way possible and within the set funding envelope of £55.7bn.We will conduct a departmental Spending Review later this year where all investments will be examined to ensure they are delivering good value for the public purse.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Cybercrime

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2019 to Question 212673 on Cybercrime: Ministerial Responsibility, what information his Department holds on discussions held by Ministers with their counterparts in the EU on (a) continued cyber relationships and (b) participation in the Cooperation Group in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Margot James: As a result of negotiations between the UK and the EU, the Political Declaration includes a commitment to promote security and stability in cyberspace through increased international cooperation, including participating in certain activities of the Cooperation Group. In the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal, shared threats to cyber security will remain. The absence of a formal arrangement does therefore not affect our continued commitment to work with our European partners to safeguard our collective security.

Internet Watch Foundation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to ensure that the Internet Watch Foundation continues to receive government funding after the UK leaves the EU.

Margot James: The work of the Internet Watch Foundation is greatly valued by the UK Government, and is a key part of the UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC). Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the UKSIC will continue to receive EU funding until the end of 2020. Continued UK participation in EU funding programmes is subject to negotiations on the UK's future partnership with the EU. In the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Government has guaranteed successful bids to EU funds submitted by UK participants before the UK exits the EU.

Internet: Disability

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of reported online abuse towards people with disabilities.

Margot James: In October 2018 the Government published data on online hate crime, which shows an increase in online disability hate crime recorded by the police between 2016/17 and 2017/18 (from 140 to 225). It is likely that the figures under represent levels of online hate crime towards people with disabilities and do not cover online abuse that does not meet the criminal threshold. The forthcoming Online Harms White Paper will set out legislative measures to tackle the full range of online harms, including online abuse. We will continue to engage with the disabled community and other stakeholders as we develop our proposals.

Broadband

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on establishing a nationwide, full-fibre broadband network.

Margot James: In July 2018, the government published the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR), setting out a commitment to deliver nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033. This would be achieved through encouraging market competition and commercial investment, whilst intervening in uncommercial areas through an Outside-In approach. Over £1.7bn of public money has been invested in the BDUK superfast programme, which met our target to extend superfast coverage to 95% of UK premises by December 2017. Further investment through BDUK to reach 97% superfast coverage will be solely through full fibre deployment Starting in April 2019, the £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme announced in the 2018 budget will also deliver full fibre connections to local hubs in rural areas, starting with primary schools, alongside vouchers for connectivity to nearby premises. Government is also supporting competitive commercial investment through the £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, which is expected to unlock over £1bn investment in full fibre. Since Summer 2017, the £294m Local Full Fibre Networks programme is also stimulating commercial investment in full fibre networks. This includes our £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, available to homes and businesses across the UK. In addition, the Government is continuing to address barriers to deployment. We published two consultations on policy options to reform existing access arrangements to provide a right of entry for communication providers in cases of absentee landlords, and to ensure full fibre connections to new build developments. These consultations are now closed and the Government will publish responses shortly. Industry have continued to respond with commitments to full fibre rollout. CityFibre recently announced a £2.5bn investment plan to expand its full fibre network to 5 million homes in partnership with Vodafone, and Hyperoptic have secured funding to target up to 5 million homes by 2024, whilst Openreach have expanded the reach of its Fibre First rollout to 25 towns, cities or boroughs. According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report 2018, commercial and public rollout has delivered upwards of a million full fibre connections over the last 12 months.

Data Protection

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on cross-border data handling when the UK leaves the EU.

Margot James: The Secretary of State has regular discussions with his Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues, including cross-border data handling when the UK leaves the European Union. The Government has published information and guidance on handling cross-border data flows when the UK leaves the European Union.

Hakeem AlAraibi

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of (a) FIFA and (b) IOC on the unlawful detainment of footballer Hakeem al-Araibi in Thailand.

Mims Davies: The detention of Hakeem al-Araibi in Thailand was recently raised at the debate on Sport in the UK and in questions to FCO colleagues. This is a matter for the Governments of Thailand, Bahrain and Australia.

Entertainers: Conditions of Employment

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his officials have had with officials in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the potential effect on (a) the economic sustainability of and (b) employment rights of people working in the entertainment industry of that Department’s plans to align employment status frameworks for the purposes of employment rights and tax.

Margot James: Officials regularly discuss a range of matters with their counterparts at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. As set out in the Good Work Plan published in December 2018, Government is working on detailed proposals on how these frameworks could be aligned which will include their impact on a range of sectors.

Prime Minister

Brexit

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to her oral contribution of 21 January 2019, Official Report, column 27, on Leaving the EU, with which representatives of the English regions she has since engaged; and what form those discussions took.

Mrs Theresa May: As I said in my statement, we will look at further ways to engage regional representatives in England in the next phase.

Northern Ireland Office

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what the timetable is for (a) her Department's publication of its response to its consultation on addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland's past and (b) the Government bringing forward legislative proposals on that matter.

Karen Bradley: The legacy consultation concluded in October and we expect to finish our analysis of the 17,000+ responses shortly. The public gave their time to tell us what they want so it is right that we consider every response fully.We have met the main political parties in Northern Ireland to set out the emerging themes from our analysis so far and will continue to work with them and partners on the way forward.I will set out the next steps in this process as soon as I can.

Women and Equalities

Gender Recognition

Luke Pollard: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to announce changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

Victoria Atkins: From 3 July to 22 October 2018, the Government ran a public consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in order to make the gender recognition process less bureaucratic and intrusive for the people that use it. We received over 100,000 responses to the consultation and we are now working to analyse these. We will publish the Government’s response in due course.

Gender Recognition: Health Services

Mr Paul Sweeney: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department plans to take with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that trans patients do not have to seek unaffordable private healthcare as a result of long waiting times in order to receive treatment and medication.

Mr Paul Sweeney: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she plans to take to improve transition healthcare for people with gender dysphoria.

Victoria Atkins: The Government Equalities Office liaised closely with the Department of Health and Social in developing the commitments set out the LGBT Action Plan. These include the appointment of a National Adviser, who will focus on reducing the health inequalities that LGBT people receive when accessing the NHS.   We are aware demand for gender identity services is growing at a significant rate.   NHS England increased investment in these services in 2016/17, from £26million to £32million, and this figure of £32million has been the overall financial investment in these services each subsequent financial year in-cluding the current year of 2018/19.   Between July and October 2017 NHS England and NHS Scotland held separate but related public consultations on proposals for new service specifications that, if adopted, describe how specialised gender identity services for adults will be commissioned and delivered in the future.   Final versions of the service specifications will be used to inform a process of competitive procurement that will determine which organisations are best placed to provide specialist gender identity services. The process of procurement will be managed by NHS England, with the involvement of NHS Scotland.

Gender Recognition: Health Services

Mr Paul Sweeney: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will take steps with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to tackle (a) GPs not being allowed to run oestrogen tests if a patient is still registered as male on the NHS and (b) other barriers in relation to those test barriers.

Victoria Atkins: Ministers and officials have regular dialogue with counterparts in DHSC, where concerns of the trans community are raised. We will continue to work with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure improved service for transgender patients and service users.   The Government Equalities Office has recently provided grants to the Royal College of General Practitioners and to the LGBT Foundation to pilot and evaluate ways to improve delivery of services to LGBT patients and service users, especially in general practice.

Candidates: Disability

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the EnAble Fund for Elected Office is available to (a) parliamentary candidates (i) seeking selection for the next General Election, (ii) standing in parliamentary by-elections; and if she will publish the Equality Impact Assessment conducted on the scope of that Fund.

Victoria Atkins: The EnAble Fund for Elected Office is an interim fund primarily for the forthcoming local elections in May. It is available until March 2020 or until its total of £250,000 is exhausted, whichever is sooner. The fund is therefore timebound. No general election is scheduled for the time period of the fund. We have however committed to consider parliamentary by-elections on a case by case basis should they arise.We will publish an impact equalities assessment on the fund in due course.

Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Written Statement of 17 May 2018 on Access to Elected Office for Disabled People, HCWS695, on what date the 12-month programme of work to help political parties encourage and support their candidates started.

Victoria Atkins: The Government Equalities Office have been focused on ensuring support is in place for disabled candidates for the forthcoming local elections in May. The £250,000 interim EnAble Fund for Elected Office has been open since December 2018. Alongside this, officials have met political parties, including the Green Party, and several disability organisations to work on options and solutions for long-term support including for smaller parties and independents. While this work is ongoing political parties should consider how best to put in place sustainable measures to support disabled candidates.